SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Tatum Hogg’s favourite subject at school is recess.
But Tatum, a Grade 4 student at Elm Street School in Summerside, used to have trouble at her school’s playground.
“I can’t reach the monkey bars,” she told her mom, one day in her early years.
Melissa Hogg, resource teacher at Elm Street, knows all too well the issues in her daughter’s schoolyard.
Beyond simple appearances - it’s old and worn-looking - the equipment was installed before kindergarten was in the school system. Some kids are just too small to use it. Others can’t access the old equipment due to mobility issues.
The area is divided into two areas – one for kindergarten to Grade 3, and the other for Grades 4 and up. Each area has two structures.
Despite the dated equipment, playtime is popular.
“We have 415 kids here. So, if you go out on the playground at any recess and both of the play structures on both sides are just jammed with kids."
In 2018, Elm Street School was told by the province's Public Schools Branch that their playground will be torn out at the end of the 2019 school year.
A parent’s committee hastily convened and managed to get that ultimatum pushed back until 2020, hoping to have a plan to replace some of it by then.
The committee and the students have been diligently raising funds, selling potatoes and meat pies among other efforts. They have raised more than $60,000, but really want to come up with $100,000 by June.
It will be enough for one piece of equipment for each side of the playground.
“We could probably have three or four on each playground, but that’s dreaming big,” said Hogg.
The Public Schools Branch (PSB) is responsible for playground maintenance and inspections.
Fred Horrelt, property coordinator with the PSB, is the one who suggested the Elm Street equipment be phased out.
He oversees the eight certified inspectors who monitor school playgrounds at the English schools on P.E.I.
“We don’t want to take all their play structures all at once,” he said.
For instance, the swings at Elm Street are fine. Horrelt said his team continues to maintain old equipment at the nearly 40 schools with a recess, but it becomes a bigger task each year as equipment ages.
Once Elm Street chooses some new equipment, PSB staff will remove the old equipment, reconstruct the base to match the new structure and then install the new pieces.
“Our funding model does not include equipment,” said Becky Chaisson with corporate services at the board. “There’s a lot of partnership, unfortunately just not funding.”
The playground committee it has tapped out the kids’ fundraising effort.
“A lot of our children live in lower socio-economic households, so for them to sell products, a lot of times it is more challenging,” said Hogg.
The group is turning to corporate sponsors and to Elm Street graduates.
Hogg and the other parents have issued an Alumni Challenge GoFundMe campaign urging Elm Street alums to pitch in to the playground that helped shape their youth.
“We thought we’d put it out there to the alumni, everybody that’s gone through Elm Street,” she said. “We’re trying to challenge alumni to even donate five or 10 dollars. If every class did that, it would be huge.”
Playground time strengthens the muscles children use to print, draw and participate in the classroom, said occupational therapist Anne-Marie Peters.
“Play can have a direct impact on classroom success and on a child’s self confidence in their classroom skills,” said Peters.
Hogg wants her three children as well as the rest of Elm Street School to have a place to play for years to come.
“We have so many kids that this is their happy place – the school,” said Hogg. “It’d be nice to have a really nice playground for them.
TO DONATE:
Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/elm-street-playground-fundraiser/donate, at the Public Schools Branch to a trust for the Elm Street playground or at the school’s front office.
