By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
HAWAI‘I KAI — Kindergarteners and first-graders at Haha‘ione Elementary School have had to be creative during recess.
| Help Haha‘ione
Haha‘ione Elementary School’s shopping list to build sand containment boxes includes:
 45 2-by-12-foot pieces of lumber,
2,400 square feet of weed-free mesh.
About a dump-truck load of loose sand.
To help, call the school at 397-5822. |
Their playground equipment was taken out recently to make way for some new equipment, compliments of state lawmakers, who last year set aside more than $3 million to be divided among 50 schools based on student populations. Haha‘ione is No. 36 on the list.
It has been two years since Department of Education officials began condemning elementary school playground equipment for being in violation of federal safety standards, and state help is now finding its way to individual schools.
Haha‘ione students have used P.E. equipment, jump ropes, balls and hula hoops to entertain themselves during recess, said Ann Paulino, school vice principal.
"We’re preparing for the equipment," Paulino said. "The equipment we’re getting from the state is multi-use, similar to the ones the city put in" in city parks across O‘ahu.
The state plans to install the new equipment for the kindergarten-first grade playground by the end of summer, said Raynor Minami, state Department of Education facilities director. Most of the expense is for the soft surface under the equipment, Paulino said.
And while the surface under the new equipment will be taken care of by the state, the school has other playground surfaces that must be replenished with sand to meet federal regulations.
And the school is hoping for some help with that. To make the sand last longer, the school wants to build containment boxes at the base of playground equipment that’s already standing.
But donations of lumber, mesh and sand are needed, Paulino said.
Many other schools held fund-raisers to get new playground equipment. At nearby Kamiloiki Elementary School, for example, the school and parent groups held penny drives, cookbook sales and carnivals to pay for playground equipment for kindergarteners and first-graders. The school is still working to pay for more equipment for students in the upper grades.
Others, such as neighboring Koko Head Elementary, were able to use city equipment at the neighborhood park, which adjoins the school grounds.
Haha‘ione, which has a park next to the school campus, wasn’t worried about raising money for playgrounds. The school had put its fund-raising muscle into computers, Paulino said.
The state does not pay for playgrounds, said Greg Knudsen, state Department of Education spokesman. More than 180 schools statewide had all or part of their equipment pulled out because the equipment was condemned after state Department of Education officials realized they were in violation of 1981 federal safety standards, Knudsen said.
The main problem was that dirt, grass and sand surfaces had gotten too hard over the years.
Some schools, like Kamiloiki, were left completely without playground equipment.
Others, like Haha‘ione, had some equipment that met standards because there was a bed of sand underneath.
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