LEVERETT — A new playground featuring three slides, several ramps and a variety of stairs, poles and bars, joined by a series of sensory panels, a communication board and a buddy bench, opened at Leverett Elementary School last week.
Just days before the start of summer vacation, students got the opportunity on Wednesday to begin playing on the structure, culminating a development process that began three years ago.
For sixth graders who will be leaving the school, being able to use the new playground was worth the wait.
“I’m glad we finally got a chance to go on it before we graduate,” said Eden Young, who joined classmate Isobel Swihart in trying out part of the site, including scaling a pole next to one of the slides. “There’s lots of things to climb on.”
Moments later, both students hung upside down on the chinning bars.
“It’s pretty cool,” Isobel said. “There’s lots more things to do, more things to climb on and run on.”
The new playground has been in the process of being installed over the past several weeks, after the previous, mostly wooden playground, with a large platform at the top to hang out on, was demolished and removed over April vacation.
As the playground opened, Sadie Graham, the physical education teacher at the school, began showing the students how it is made from plastic, yet is designed to blend into the natural surroundings, with the green canopy over one of the landings drawing inspiration from the nearby trees.
Graham sees the new playground as adding sensory features and many more climbing elements, such as leaf steppers, tubular ladders and monkey bars. There’s also slides, including one that is spiral shaped, and a rock wall.
“The last playground had no climbing structure,” Graham said. “This one has a lot of things to dangle from, to hang from.”
She also pointed to the buddy bench, to promote inclusion and friendship, and the communication board, for those who may have difficulty in relaying their thoughts.
Graham said students are excited because they’ve gone nearly two months without a playground, having to instead play basketball, field games and other activities during recess. “Since April, they have not had a playground,” Graham said.
Because the idea was to have a more accessible playground, the school applied for and was awarded a Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Program through the Massachusetts Office on Disability.
The school then worked with Miracle Recreation to come up with an appropriate design for ages 5 to 12, coming in at under $150,000. An original $5,000 from the Leverett Educational Foundation and an equal amount contributed by the Parent-Teacher Organization and the School Committee set the stage for the application.
In-kind support also came from the Highway Department, which put down 15 inches of engineered wood fiber chips that provide safety in case of falls, with other work done by Grass Roots Landscaping in Leverett.
As students got their first insights into the playground, “Coach Sadie” advised them to watch their heads and to follow the posted instructions, reminding them that there are to be no tag games. She took them around the site, showing them both what’s on the ground and what’s up in the air.
Leverett Elementary School Principal Siby Adina and Union 28 Superintendent Shannon White-Cleveland were also on hand to see the playground’s opening.
Adina said the playground has been been on the capital planning list, but with tight budgets, that, like many projects, has had to wait.
Students completed data collection to learn what their peers wanted and didn’t want, and third graders last year wrote letters of support to the state Office on Disability. Other students also looked at playground designs in a catalog.
Due to the space constraints, Adina said the playground doesn’t have as many ramps as officials had hoped, but there are rubber mats for wheelchairs and strollers to use, and the school’s special education team was involved in the design.
“There are a lot of things on the ground level that everyone can reach,” Adina said. “The number of elements that are accessible is high.”
The playground can accommodate about 50 to 60 children at a time, but preschoolers and kindergartners will continue to have their own dedicated playground on the other side of the campus.
The Champions Out of School Care program, which runs the after-school program, incorporated two tire swings, one for an individual and the other for groups, in proximity to the playground.
A formal celebration is expected in the fall, but over the summer, those who live in the community can use the playground even though school isn’t in session.
In noting appreciation for the new playground, and that the seesaw is the best part of it, sixth grader Miles Maresca offered a succinct comment.
“This playground is tuff, gang,” Miles said.
“I concur,” added fellow sixth grader Levi Venditti.
