A school without a play structure?

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This article was published 28/03/2015 (3288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Take away the kids and the playground looks abandoned.

Nestled outside Ecole Heritage Immersion in St Pierre-Jolys, surrounded by four walls, is an enclosed playing area for the school’s youngest pupils, but what’s most evident in this playground is what is missing.

There is a pad of rocks where the play structure once stood.

IAN FROESE | THE CARILLON
Daniele Chiniah-Judson and her children Brianne and Logan at the last play structure remaining at Ecole Heritage Immersion in St Pierre-Jolys. A parent committee is under $20,000 short from being able to replace one of the two play structures they need.
IAN FROESE | THE CARILLON Daniele Chiniah-Judson and her children Brianne and Logan at the last play structure remaining at Ecole Heritage Immersion in St Pierre-Jolys. A parent committee is under $20,000 short from being able to replace one of the two play structures they need.

It was torn down in fall 2013 when the province ruled the wooden play structure was not safe.

Students were relegated to the other play structure, on the larger playground, but now the government wants to take that one away, too.

After some convincing and modifications, they kept it standing. After June, however, they will discard the condemned infrastructure.

This leaves the French Immersion school with a chance they won’t have a play structure for their almost 160 students next fall.

They need to raise $80,000 to build the two structures and they’ve only raised a little more than $10,000.

A considerable amount, sure, but they have a long way to go, concedes Parent Teacher Advisory Committee chairperson Daniele Chiniah-Judson.

She figures there is a probable chance they could find $20,000 more to build the smaller playground at an estimated cost of $30,000.

Finding the full $80,000, for both play structures, will be challenging.

“There’s no way I’ll have two, unless some grants come in miraculously,” said Chiniah-Judson, who grow up in the school and now works there as an educational assistant. Her daughter Brianne, in Grade 3, and son Logan, in Grade 1, are students there.

Chiniah-Judson is also PTAC chairperson and says it’s frustrating to try raising $80,000 in essentially 10 months.

Only a three-person committee when the first play structure was condemned, virtually no fundraising was done last school year because the volunteers didn’t have the time, said Chiniah-Judson.

Last fall requests for help were sent to parents, which added a few more members and allowed the committee to pursue several fundraisers in these last few months. Among them, a bud, spud and steak dinner, a family dance, pajama day, bake sales and local businesses have been tapped on the shoulder.

“The parents here have been great,” said Chiniah-Judson. “We’ve applied for grants, too, but that takes time.”

She has asked the Red River Valley School Division for assistance but so far they stand by their policy to not provide division funds for play structures. Volunteer parent groups at other RRVSD schools have raised the money in the past, board finance chair Shelley Syrota said earlier this month.

During a public budget meeting in Morris, Chiniah-Judson challenged Syrota on the policy, and she was later given the chance to present her case at an ensuing board meeting.

Chiniah-Judson said on Tuesday she has yet to hear back from the division on her request.

She expressed that Rolling River and Turtle Mountain school divisions allocate yearly amounts to a playground enhancement fund. She’d like the same thing at Red River Valley.

“Any little help from the division would mean one last fundraiser. It would mean happier parents, more willing to maybe help with other fundraisers,” she said.

RRVSD announced this month they will provide funds for each school for outdoor play equipment, ranging from skipping ropes, toboggans and hockey nets. A play structure would not fall under this category.

Chiniah-Judson said every kid at Heritage Immersion knows a new play structure is needed. They know more money is needed, and one of their EAs is working on it.

She doesn’t want to let them down.

“I’d love to say yes, we’ll have a play structure,” she said. “It’s like a dream.”

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