You can learn more about an individual during an hour of play than in a year of conversation. —Plato

Ask any grade-school child what he or she likes best about school and the answer will be unanimous—it’s recess. And recess isn’t recess without a playground. Harvard Elementary School has a playground, but it is showing its age, and there are safety issues with its location, foundation, and structure. The equipment is outdated and has no climbing structures scaled to pre-school and kindergarten use. The Elementary School Council, Principal Mary Beth Banios, and math and science curriculum coordinator Gretchen Henry hope that the school and the town will come together to build a new playground.

Twenty years ago plans were underway to demolish and replace the old brown building which, along with a free-standing brick building in the back, housed Harvard’s elementary students. The school playground was a sorry sight. Gretchen Henry describes it as “just a few pieces of ancient, rusted-out equipment—a dangerously high jungle gym and slide just randomly plopped out on the field, standing in very hard compacted soil.” Learning that there was no money for a new playground in the school addition budget, Henry became the coordinator of the Harvard Community Playground Committee and moved the playground project forward.

A “design day” was held in September of 1989 where children got to voice their ideas for the perfect playground. Physical education staff members submitted their requests, and after that, as many of the children’s preferences as financially possible were accommodated in the plans. The materials cost $50, 000, half of which came from the Shaw Trust and half from fundraising efforts. The labor for assembly and set-up was donated by townspeople. During a weekend in May 1990, 45 to 50 volunteers each day worked on erecting the playground equipment. Project volunteer Don Phillips remembers the project as a lot of fun and one that really drew the community together. By that Sunday evening the school had a new playground.

Over the years the site of the playground has become increasingly dangerous as traffic patterns have changed. There is no fence to separate it from the comings and goings of large numbers of cars at the back of the school. Delivery trucks back right up along one side of the area to make deliveries to the cafeteria. Over time, the railroad ties that create a foundation for the equipment have deteriorated, so the whole sub-structure is becoming eroded. The mulch continually washes away, leaving only hard ground under the climbing structures.

The equipment is outdated and would not meet modern safety standards, although there is no risk to the children using it. The playground is grandfathered for meeting safety codes, and the company that manufactured the equipment makes periodic inspections. However, no provision exists for handicapped use, and the scale of the equipment is unsuitable for pre-school and kindergarten children. And, there’s no sandbox!

Principal Banios asked DPW Director Rich Nota about repairs to the facility. According to Nota, the “Band-Aid” approach would cost $35,000, an estimate based on using town equipment with volunteer labor. The work would include things like shoring up the support structure, regrading, and putting up a fence. There would be no change in site and no upgrades to the equipment. For an additional $75,000 new equipment could be purchased that would meet current safety standards, be more appealing, and offer more diversity. It might also be possible to locate the playground in a completely new space.

Ideally, funding for the playground would come through the town’s capital plan, and Banios says that she has put in a request for $110,000. Realistically, the money will probably have to come from other sources. As before, it will take private donations of both money and manpower. A new playground is one of the recommendations of the Elementary School Council. The council, as well as Banios and Henry, would like to see the playground built during the summer of ’09.

Hopes are that history will repeat itself in this case and school and community will come together to raise money and build a new elementary school playground. One good thing about becoming involved in building a playground for kids—if we build it, they will come.

Anyone who would like to help get things off the ground can e-mail Elementary School Council member Toni Purdy tonipurdy@charter.net.