Friday, July 20, 2007

Let’s Talk Shade Structures!

Back in the fall of last year when we were told that our school was going to be forced to convert to a Year-round schedule, we made up our minds that we’d research the subject as well as we could to see if there was any way to get our school taken off the list.  We felt that we had a very compelling case against the conversion,  so it was time to get to work on our strategy.

One thing we felt was misrepresented in the press was the TRUE COST OF CONVERSIONS.  What was printed in the newspaper as the “cost of conversion to year-round” was basically the cost of the teacher’s track-out carts (which was approximately $65,000)  As we dug deeper, we found that the cost of these carts was just a SMALL FRACTION of the true cost.

I’m happy to share our calculations with anyone interested, because it was close to $800,000 which is obviously a HUGE discrepancy.

But, one cost that was not included in the cost of conversion was shade structures to go over the school playgrounds.  We couldn’t believe that the school system was not considering putting shade structures over all of the playgrounds at the 19 Elementary schools being forced to convert to a YR schedule.  We all know how hot playground equipment can be in the North Carolina sun.  After a child slides down a hot slide or feels the burn of hot monkey bars on his/her hands, you can be pretty certain that he/she won’t be playing on the hot playground equipment for a long time.

I know that as an adult I am miserable being outside in the hot summer sun without a swimming pool nearby—-even just standing still.  Most children won’t stand still or seek shade when it’s recess time—-what they want to do is run and play with their friends, and this could really cause some problems.  (heat exhaustion, dehydration, and sunburn to name a few)

In the short time I’ve been involved in looking into shade structures, it appears that some schools are well on their way to getting these for their schools.  Unfortunately, from what I’ve been told (and I know that I could be wrong) it sounds like the school system is refusing to pay for these, so the funds have to be raised by the PTA at each school.

I thought that soliciting corporate sponsorships would be a great way to raise the necessary funds, however I was told that the Wake County School System will not allow corporations to fund these types of items.

What are other Year-Round schools doing in regards to shade structures?

Does anyone know if it’s true that the School System won’t allow corporations to pay for shade structures?

Does anyone have advice regarding grant applications?

THANKS for your input!