Posted on: Friday, April 4, 2003

84 elementary schools have new playgrounds, report says

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

Four years after yellow caution tape went up around Hawai'i's school play equipment and barred student access, 84 elementary schools have new playgrounds and four have playgrounds under construction, according to a Department of Education report released yesterday.

The 84 completed playgrounds mean that nearly half of the public elementary schools in the state have new playground equipment.

Public school officials four years ago realized they didn't meet new federal safety guidelines for playgrounds and had to tear down most of the equipment across the state, some of which had been built by parent volunteers.

This first round of playground installation was to have been finished last July, but DOE officials have blamed the lag on construction delays they said are typical of such projects.

The first 88 playground projects cost $4.5 million. The Joint Venture Education Forum, a military and civilian schools partnership, paid for playgrounds at seven of those schools.

About $55,000 was spent at each site for the new playground equipment, foundations and soft rubber surfaces.

An additional $2.3 million in funding for the 2003 fiscal year will cover projects for another 49 schools, said Rae Loui, assistant superintendent of administrative services.

The Department of Education hopes to put those 49 projects out to bid this spring and have them completed by the end of the year, Loui told members of the Board of Education in a meeting yesterday.

Because the replacement process has been so lengthy, some schools and parent groups took it upon themselves to buy and install playground equipment.

At Kamiloiki Elementary School in Hawai'i Kai, parents raised about $30,000 and used it to pay for the concrete pad that goes underneath the playground equipment.

At Kuhi'o Elementary School in Mo'ili'ili, the school combined parent fund-raisers and donations with school and state money and donated labor to get their playground opened last month — seven months after the project began.

Public outcry over the lack of playgrounds and the tearing down of old, unsafe equipment led the Legislature to appropriate money over the past couple of years to spend on playgrounds. That appropriation ends in 2004.

But the DOE is asking for an additional $1.5 million in the state's 2003-2005 biennium budget to complete more projects.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.