In the Spring of
2008, Kittson Central Community Schools (Hallock, Minn.) was in the process of
closing its elementary school and remodeling its high school to create a single
k-8 facility. Other than a preschool being operated from that building and a
compliant playground designed to meet the needs of the pre-school students, the
outdoor play and fitness area wasn’t adequate to handle the 230 elementary
school students that would soon be playing there.
Superintendent Bruce
Jenson had attended an NPCG playground safety seminar in the fall of 2007. After
listening to the interactive playground safety presentation and seeing the
appropriate ways to build and maintain a playground, he understood the need for
safe and accessible surfacing. He called on NPCG to help design a new play and
fitness area for the school.
The playground
committee consisted of Superintendent Jensen, school board members and district
staff.The committee had three
criteria for the new play area.
ADA accessibility
Low
Maintenance
Separation
of age groups
Community
attraction
The first step was to
retrofit the existing playground with low maintenance DuroMat Extended Life® safety
tiles, and create an ADA accessible path from the school building to the play
area.
DuroMat Extended Life
safety tiles were also installed on the new play area, creating designated
activity areas for jump rope, four square and hopscotch.A multipurpose play surface also
separated the different play areas, keeping younger children from intermingling
with older children.
To encourage physical
activity for older children, a play structure was designed on the far side of
the multipurpose area.This
structure was designed with play events that would focus on building core body
strength as well as encouraging social behavior.
To provide additional
competitive play events and a sporting facility that could be used by the
entire community, a Universal Sport Court was installed on a regulation size
concrete slab.The Sport Court
provides multiple play events such as street hockey, soccer and
basketball.Additional basketball
hoops were added around the perimeter to entertain the maximum number of
children during recess periods.
Special care was
taken to be sure the surface of all play areas transitioned smoothly with each
other and were fully ADA accessible.
The school district’s
decision to make safety and accessibility part of the overall design and to
work with NCPG for all aspects of the project – from design through
installation – helped produced a beautiful and functional playground with a
quick turnaround from decision to installation.
