Playground funding priorities concern parent

The playground at Rock Creek is shabby and rusty. It is also X-rated, due to vandals who spray-painted offensive words on the slides. Though it serves children with disabilities, the playground was never tailored to their needs, said Patterson, whose 14-year-old daughter attends Rock Creek School.

About 90 students with severe intellectual, physical, emotional, visual, hearing and learning disabilities from ages three to 21 attend the school.

The school’s playground was slated for replacement last year, but lost the battle for county funding to school projects with higher priority.

In Frederick County, funding for playground projects is often delayed when the system has to deal with more pressing needs, such as boiler, roof or air-conditioning replacements, he said.

County schools facilities director Ray Barnes said Rock Creek School’s playground is on the top of the system’s priority list for fiscal 2009. Parents will get a definite answer in the spring, when county commissioners approve the capital improvements project budget for the school system.

According to the county schools’ facilities master plan, system has asked the county for $100,000 to fund the Rock Creek project.

The Rock Creek project is followed by the Woodsboro and Middletown Elementary playground projects, which also didn’t get funding last year.

‘‘The money that we had went to roof replacement,” he said.

Worried the same thing could happen again, Patterson asked the Frederick County Board of Education to keep pushing for the project again this year.

‘‘It really is in abysmal shape,” Patterson told the board on Dec. 12.

At some schools, Parent Teacher Associations organize fundraisers and pay for the replacements. Doing that at Rock Creek would be difficult since PTA members also must fight for funding special training equipment and extra nurses, she said.

‘‘We are parents of children with special needs,” Patterson said. ‘‘We cover the full gamut of needs ... We just don’t have the time or the energy. We are exhausted.”

Playgrounds have been funded through Frederick County Public Schools’ capital improvements project budget for six years. Before that, PTAs paid for replacements at most school playgrounds.

‘‘Since 2000, we’ve been completing one or two playground equipment projects per year,” Barnes said.

In 2000, when the playground funding process was changed, the system completed an inventory of all playground equipment across the system and evaluated its safety and age. Based on these indicators, the system created a priority replacement list. The old playground at Waverley Elementary ranked higher than the one at Rock Creek and because of that, was replaced first, he said.

‘‘It was in pretty bad shape,” he said.

Despite of available county finding, some Frederick County schools still have to use other sources, especially if they need specialized playground equipment.

At Brunswick Elementary, special education teacher Wendy Campbell led a six-year-long campaign to bring a handicapped-accessible playground to the school. She fought for permits, organized fundraisers, applied for grants and wrote 100 letters asking friends and relatives to donate money for the project. The new playground had climbers for wheelchair users, swings with back support and even a tablet with the alphabet in Braille and American Sign Language.

Because the equipment was highly specialized it cost more than $75,000.

If Rock Creek School gets funding for its playground from the county, the school’s parents and staff may not need to go these lengths.

With a recent $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Frederick County, the school’s parents and staff are more optimistic that they may find money to replace the existing playground.

Rock Creek School Principal Gayle Brown said her school has a range of competing needs and for some parents the playground is a priority.

Because it serves students with severe physical disabilities, the school has been equipped with a small-size pool for physical therapy and equipment designed for children with disabilities. The school also has nine nurses.

‘‘We know the playground needs to be updated,” she said. ‘‘But we also have our pool — we count that as a major recreational area.”