By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The Montgomery Township Board of Education helped fund the new playground equipment that arrived at the Orchard Hill Elementary School last week.
The school board recently agreed to contributed the $6,000 that was requested by the school’s former PTA president and newly elected school board member Adelle Kirk during a school board meeting earlier this year.
”We had equipment that was old and outdated,” Ms. Kirk said, during a phone interview Friday. “The school board had planned to do safety upgrades and refurbishment on two of the school’s older playground structures and we (the school PTA) said why don’t’ you take $6,000 and invest it in new a piece of equipment instead.”
The newly installed playground equipment includes a large, multi-faceted climbing and sliding structure that provides opportunities to focus on gross motor coordination skills and four multi-hoop, basketball hoop-like structures called Funhoops, Ms. Kirk said. The two outdated playground structures have been removed from the playground area located to the west of the school.
The total cost of purchasing the new structure and hoops, removing the old structures and installing the new equipment was $42,000.
While the school district provided $6,000 to the project from its 2007-2008 budget, school parents contributed the bulk of the funding.
”We’re glad the school district gave us the $6,000, but it’s really the parents at Orchard Hill who were generous and participated in our fundraiser that made it possible,” Ms. Kirk said.
The Village Elementary School PTA also recently received word that the school district will be providing it with funds for improving the recreational space available to children during recess.
The 2008-2009 budget provides $15,000 to go toward the purchase of a $30,000 playground structure for one of the Village Elementary School’s playground areas. Members of the school’s PTA board requested the funding, because the school’s existing playground equipment is not age-appropriate for the third and fourth graders that attend Village Elementary School, said PTA President Annie Michaelson.
It will be up to the PTA to match the $15,000 provided by the board.
