Atlanta Elementary School Finally Gets Playground, Others Still Without

August 7th, 2013

This week, Atlanta Public School students will start the 2013-14 school year.

Many elementary students are probably looking forward to what the district calls unstructured play or what was traditionally known as recess.

Some of the students will have access to a playground, but that’s not the case for all.

WABE’s Rose Scott reports how the district is trying to fix that problem for a school in the city’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.

This is a story about Hope-Hill Elementary school and the quest for its own playground.

Currently it’s one of ten schools without one.

That’s ten out of fifty APS elementary schools.

Other than Hope-Hill, the other nine are located south of I-20.

APS executive director of communications and external affairs Mikkal Hart Murunga says all elementary schools have an outside designated area for the students.

“We do as a district provides recreational space for all of our schools particularly in this case we’re talking about the elementary schools. So, all the elementary schools do have areas that have been grated so they can around in play space.”

But the runaround play space for Hope-Hill is small and the students have been using land adjacent to the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change.

And because Hope-Hill now offers a full-day Pre-K program, it’s important that playground equipment exist because it’s required by the state.

So, with help from the City of Atlanta, there may be a solution.

George Dusenberry is the commissioner for the department of parks and recreation

He says APS approached the city about wanting to put a playground on the land near Hope-Hill elementary school and the MLK recreational center which the city owns.

The agreement between APS and the city is that the school system will pay for a playground, but then donate it to the city owned space which borders Irwin and Jackson streets.

The playground project should get underway in a few months.

There are permits to be obtained and APS will finalize the playground design.

And that’s how Hope-Hill Elementary School will get a playground.

Up next according to APS officials is to make sure those elementary schools with space will also get a playground.