School councils struggle to pay the huge costs of play structures,
Parents raise funds to help replace aging play structures
For about two years, parents and students at Pleasant Park Public School have held bake sales and movie nights; they’ve sold handmade newspaper compost bags and vegetables from the school garden as they try to raise money for a new play structure.
A structure for students in Grades 4 to 6 was removed a few years ago, said Cecilia Lee, the lead on the school council’s play structure subcommittee. A new one, with a couple of slides and parts to climb on and hang from, is expected to cost about $70,000.
The council has come up with about $20,000 so far, Lee said, and fundraising work can be time consuming, challenging and competitive.
Other schools are in a similar position. More than twodozen older play structures in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have been removed for safety reasons, and many more are nearing the end of their life cycles, keeping school councils busy if they want to replace them.
Basic structures for students in kindergarten cost about $42,000, while those for students in Grades 1 to 8 typically cost about $35,000, according to board staff. Larger, more elaborate structures are more expensive, and there are costs to prepare a site.
If grant applications are approved, schools can get up to $7,500 through a city program, an amount the board will match. The rest is typically left to school councils that turn to other grants and the generosity of the community and businesses. (In rare cases, the board has provided extra funding or assistance with site preparation if a school can’t raise enough money.)
Debate about the role that the board should play in replacing such structures has emerged in recent weeks, and director of education Jennifer Adams told trustees last month that staff intend to present a report this fall about play structure needs across the district, as well as costsharing and how structures are prioritized compared to other capital projects.
During budget deliberations in June, trustee Mark Fisher presented a motion calling for $2.6 million from reserve funds to be put toward replacing 25 structures that have been removed and 50 others that are beyond their reasonable life.
“When you look at those numbers and you look at the importance of those structures not only to the school footprint but for the communities around the schools that use them, it really raised the question to me in terms of how are we integrating replacing and maintaining these structures into our budget-making process, into our capital-planning process,” Fisher said in a recent interview.
Funding from the city and board helps, he said, but the funding formula was developed at a time when structures didn’t cost as much.
“We don’t match at a level of the investment required today,” he said.
Fisher, who represents Gloucester-South Nepean, said he was also concerned that school councils spend an “exorbitant” amount of time raising money for structures, taking them away from other important activities related to student achievement and well-being.
“We need a new approach. It’s something that the board should be worrying about, not school councils. If it’s a money issue, then we need to be factoring that into our budget process, our capital planning process, and working with the province to put in place a more sane funding mechanism for building and maintaining these kind of structures.”
The board and city could also work together more closely on the location of play structures, Fisher said, pointing to Dunlop Public School and the city’s Pushman Park, which sit side by side near Johnston Road and Albion Road South and contain a total of four structures.
Fisher’s motion was defeated, with some trustees suggesting that all schools are different and a standard approach to structures wouldn’t be suitable, and that there are other cheaper and more creative options for play yards.
It was also suggested that the district consult with the community on the best ways to improve student health before making any decisions about replacing play structures, according to minutes from the meeting.
Trustee Donna Blackburn (Barrhaven/KnoxdaleMerivale) said Friday that school councils can decide for themselves whether a play structure should be replaced.
There are several ways for councils to raise money if they choose to do so, she said, and there are schools willing to help with fundraising for those that need it. Blackburn also noted that the funding provided by the board “hasn’t kept up with the pace of the rising cost of play structures.”
Additional money from the board would be welcomed, said Jean Byrne, who was the play yard renewal co-ordinator during a project to replace Woodroffe Avenue Public School’s old wooden play structure for students in Grades 1 to 3.
“It’s a lot of pressure on a council and on a school community,” Byrne said.
“Fortunately, we have enough people in our school that are wealthy enough that they can give donations, but not every school is like that.”
The structure at the Woodroffe Avenue school was removed in 2011. The council had been putting funds aside for about seven years, Byrne said, and received city and board funding. It also raised money for two or three years, and the new $30,000 structure officially opened last fall.
Another structure at the school is now due for replacement, she said.
Students would have fewer options for play if left without a structure, Byrne said, adding that there’s research showing that “giving kids a variety of options for play really cuts down on injuries and bullying and all that sort of stuff. “We felt it was a good idea to try and give them some sort of direction in their play,” she said.