YOU CAN HELP! Here’s what Friends of Roxhill Elementary needs for playground push

| How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(WSB photo: Playground at EC Hughes, mid-June)

While EC Hughes Elementary in Sunrise Heights is getting some renovation work before Roxhill Elementary is moved there in fall of 2018, the project doesn’t include the playground … so, as we reported a month ago, the new support group Friends of Roxhill Elementary is launching a community campaign. Today, from Jenny Rose Ryan, an announcement of the next phase, focusing on ways you can help – with money, materials, and/or volunteer time:

You can also find out more at the upcoming Friends of Roxhill Elementary meeting – 6 pm Thursday, July 20th, at White Center Library (1409 SW 107th) – everyone’s welcome.

Jon Wright July 11, 2017 (2:51 pm)

I realize this may be a rhetorical question but how on earth has Seattle Public Schools abdicated responsibility for putting a playground in as part of the renovations? And why are schools with vulnerable populations (Boren STEM and Roxhill come to mind) getting crapped on instead of getting the EXTRA support they could really use?

WSB July 11, 2017 (3:23 pm)

What they have does qualify as a playground … albeit a mostly-asphalt one. That’s what led to other community-led playground projects at other schools. It is a bigger question deserving of exploration, though …
JRR July 11, 2017 (4:51 pm)

Good questions, Jon, especially considering the district’s stated efforts to reduce disparities.

KM July 11, 2017 (6:06 pm)

The previous playground equipment that was relatively new was removed a few weeks ago, any chance they’ll be able to reuse that in their new playground to help save on funds?

JRR July 11, 2017 (6:44 pm)

It was older than it looked and determined to be not in great shape.
- KM July 12, 2017 (11:04 am)
  
  Didn’t Westside put it in when they leased the buildling? That would make it less than 7 years old. I don’t remember it being there before they moved in.
  - JRR July 12, 2017 (1:12 pm)
    
    It was moved from somewhere else before – so it’s older than that. We’ve already tackled this conversation as part of our planning work with SPS.

dcn July 11, 2017 (6:29 pm)

I agree with Jon. A large asphalt area should not qualify as a playground. SPS should be required to install some sort of play equipment as part of its renovation, instead of relying on community donations and legwork to make it happen. The cost of play equipment can’t be that large compared to the overall budget for this project. It should have been included.

I often get the feeling that SPS doesn’t think about kids when they make all these school building decisions. The recent idea to potentially move the STEM school comes to mind. As does moving teachers 3 or more weeks into the school year to make their numbers work, no matter the distress it must cause their students. I also know a family whose child was forced to change schools because special education services were full at their school. The student was moved to another school that had an opening, which caused a lot of upset for him.

Children are just pieces to be moved around SPS’s giant puzzle. Their only goal just seems to be to make everyone fit somewhere, and I’m not convinced that they are even doing a good job of achieving that.

I understand that budgets must be kept, but I don’t feel that many of the decisions that SPS makes are mindful of the fact that they are dealing with children.

TJ July 11, 2017 (6:39 pm)

Pretty comical, but this is the typical Seattle way. Leave out important parts of a project and rely on community fund raising to fill the gap, or just come back and ask for more money later. This school district is so mismanaged its sick. If it were a private company it would have been out of business years ago. Levies, levies, and more levies to pay for things outside of the regular core school functions, when all we hear is those basic functions are underfunded. And remember, we in Seattle just got soaked in taxes with this new state budget deal to fully fund schools. Trust me, we will soon hear it is not enough and they will come back for more soon enough.

TP July 13, 2017 (5:59 am)

Yes it sucks that such an already needy school has to look to the community to raise funds for our playground but that’s where we are. Let’s put the kids first and try to come together to make something good happen for the new space. Any ideas are welcome! And a tax write off for businesses that want to donate 😊

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