Posted on: Sunday, May 27, 2001
Schools still lack play equipment
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
Two years after their playground equipment was deemed unsafe and removed, many Hawai'i public schools are still waiting for replacements, even though they put in their requests more than a year ago and lawmakers have approved more than $4.5 million to pay for them.
"The date keeps moving further and further away," said Wendy Yoshimoto, Wailupe Valley Elementary School principal. "It's a procedural kind of thing. We haven't heard word one.
"It's like quicksand, you can't get a hand hold."
Fifty schools were supposed to have had equipment installed already, but changes in the bid proposal's wording keep pushing the date back. Now it looks like schools will be lucky to have playground equipment put in by the end of next school year, said Ray Minami, Department of Education facilities director.
The situation is particularly frustrating to some because in the same time, the city managed to install 47 sets of new, federally approved playground equipment at parks around O'ahu. By the end of this year it will have 105 playsets in the ground.
The city saved money and time by using the same contractor and the same playground equipment at each site. In contrast, each school is proposing a piece of equipment that is unique to that school.
"It makes it harder, but we want to honor the school's play value and curriculum," Minami said.
In spring 1999, state crews began taking out equipment deemed unsafe or inaccessible to the handicapped. Some schools around the state still have yellow warning tape around their equipment. Others are making do with alternate activities on their empty playgrounds.
In the past, playgrounds have been paid for by parent groups, not the education department. Nevertheless, money was appropriated by the Legislature last year and again this year, for a total of $4.5 million to pay for playground equipment and the soft surface beneath. Each playground costs about $100,000. Additional money was appropriated to make existing playgrounds handicap accessible.
Because the Department of Education does not have a playground policy, the state relied upon the federal guidelines for safety, Minami said.
He said 85 schools sent in proposals. Some schools don't need new play equipment because their playgrounds are next to city parks.
Others, such as Kamiloiki Elementary School, held fund-raisers to pay for the equipment themselves.
Then delays set in. Minami said questions from the people who sell the playground equipment prompted changes in the bid proposal.
"We wanted to make sure we had quality equipment," Minami said. "We pulled the bid request back to redo the specifications."
Rather than ask each school to refine its proposal, Minami said his office is doing it. It's a difficult task since each school's equipment proposal is unique and requires a separate bid, he said.
"The mayor got his equipment in. It does bother me," said Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Wai'alae Iki, Hawai'i Kai). "It shows that we have to take serious action to decentralize the state Department of Education."
Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-16th (Moanalua, Salt Lake) and chairman of the education committee, said he is equally frustrated.
"I was hopeful we'd get the equipment in sooner," Sakamoto said. "I don't have an answer, except the state Department of Education is attempting to work with each school and not just get one kind of equipment."
Meanwhile, Yoshimoto, the Wailupe Valley principal, said dealing with delays and the lack of equipment takes persistence and patience.
After equipment was removed from her campus, Yoshimoto was left with one small piece of playground equipment that the kindergartners use. The rest of her students in her 197-student school, share the use of a courtyard and the basketball court.
"They're very creative," Yoshimoto said. "Sidewalk games, jump rope and hopscotch, that's what they do. There is not enough room for everyone, so we rotate."
