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Playground Renovation. Community Transformation.
Nearly every neighborhood in the country has a public school, and nearly every public school has a schoolyard. The quality of that space matters not only to the students but to all the nearby residents, whether they use it or not. See how a playground renovation can create deep community transformation.
By Deborah Williams
Video production by PWPVideo
Published August 20, 2024
Rising temperatures, bigger storms, and asphalt schoolyards pose significant risks during recess. Urge Congress to prioritize schoolyards that cool neighborhoods, manage stormwater, and provide opportunities for kids to connect with nature today!
TRANSCRIPT
Narrator: This is Bregy Elementary School in South Philadelphia. The students here, the staff, the surrounding community, and principal Shakira Warthen had a nearly 40,000 square foot problem they were hoping to address.
Shakeera Warthen-Canty, Principla, Bregy School: Everybody that came to visit Bregy School…I made sure we stopped back here at the patio doors. They look out. ‘What do you see?’ And they’re like ‘nothing.’ Exactly. We have a big empty schoolyard.
(Off camera): Can you describe the Bregy Schoolyard to me?
Mariah Murray, student, Bregy Elementary: Basic. Boring…And dirty.
Narrator: The Bregy school is such a special community, but their story isn’t all that unique here in Philadelphia or around the country for that matter.
Our nation’s public schools occupy 2 million acres. Too many of their schoolyards are seas of asphalt, just like Bregy. Not only does the lack of modern equipment hinder active creative play that children need, but these spaces are a liability for communities.
In the hotter months, they’re heat islands that bake in the sun. During downpours they flood.
Communities want more, rightfully.
Shakeera Warthen-Canty: “MY KIDS NEED THIS. MY KIDS DESERVE THIS.”
Narrator: And when they start asking around about how they can get a better schoolyard, they usually find us.
Here’s what happens next. If we’re invited, we meet with the stakeholders—district representatives, principals, teachers, students, parents, and neighbors. We listen. Closely and carefully. They tell us what they want and need in their schoolyard, not the other way around. Then, we help put wheels in motion. We raise money or help tap sources of funding; we facilitate community-led design (that’s everyone’s favorite part); we bring local landscape architects, utility commissions, and climate scientists to the team; and we oversee permitting, due-diligence, and construction.
What we don’t do? We don’t design these spaces. The students and the teachers and the neighbors design these spaces to fit their needs. The final product transforms the community, but the process to get there transforms the people, especially the students.
Lorina Zeller, principal, Add B. Anderson Elementary School: We were developing data analysts and we were developing community planners, and we were developing new architects. And so I’m thinking about all of the seeds that were sewn into future interests and future careers.
We gave our students the opportunity to dream a little bit bigger and wider in a space that is meaningful to them.
Narrator: We lend our experience and expertise to make sure that the final product is not only true to the community’s vision but that it will also boost the community’s climate resilience while putting a high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of hundreds or even thousands of people.
Bregy is one of 350 schoolyards that we have transformed in 23 states…so far.
Sierra Drayton, student, Bregy Elementary School: I am Sierra Drayton and I am in sixth grade and this is Playground Poem.
The track is blue, the slide is too. We will have so much fun, just me and you. There is so much stuff to use, I don’t know what to do. I love this playground, and it loves me too. I would like to thank you, you, and you. A blank space turned into something fun. I cannot wait to play and run. Words are hurtful so watch what you say. If you skin your knee, it will be okay. Just get a band aid and continue to play because today is finally the day that we will have a more fun space to play.
