The Sherman School to replace 20-year-old playground

SHERMAN — A jungle gym, rope climbing apparatus and swing set are some of the features of a brand new playground at The Sherman School this fall.

Additional funding may be needed, however, to complete the project.

Sherman School Facilities Supervisor and Technician Joe Lombardozci said the new playground will be a direct replacement of the school’s existing playground, which has reached the end of its life cycle after being maintained by the school for 20 years.

“I think the technology of building playgrounds has greatly improved over the years,” said Sherman School Superintendent Patricia Cosentino. “It’s definitely needed and the kids deserve to have a good playground.”

Among other features, Lombardozci said the new playground will have a jungle gym that where students can climb up to the second level, a rope climbing apparatus and a swing set.

Sherman Board of Education Chairman Matt Vogt said the town approved “a number not to exceed $300,000 for repairs to the Pre-K playground, a new piece of playground equipment for the Pre-K playground and for the equipment and installation to replace the large school playground.”

He also mentioned it’s been “somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 months since we put the order in for the equipment.”

Sherman First Selectman Don Lowe said the town may need to ask for more funding to complete the playground’s installation.

“There is probably going to be some additional costs associated with some site work that wasn’t anticipated,” he said.

“That’s going to probably be the bulk of it.”

Expecting the delivery of some of the playground’s equipment sometime this week, Cosentino said the school has volunteers that are going to dismantle the existing playground to make way for the new playground. The new playground will be installed by the company Little Tykes.

Since some of the playground equipment is on back order, Vogt said it’ll probably a few months before it’s completely installed. In the meantime, he said the school now has a School Building Committee that’s managing the playground’s installation and is committed to getting it installed as soon as possible.

“There are several planning requirements which still need to be completed,” Vogt said, “and the committee is also reviewing options for several other items which are relevant to its installation, including the surfacing.”

More projects are on the horizon at The Sherman School.

“The playground is the first step as we work to hopefully have a renovation project (completed) at the school,” Cosentino said. “I think it’ll entail a new roof, maybe redoing some of our offices and some of our spaces.”