Cassville Schools initiates playground changes
November 13, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
Cassville R-IV School District is making progress on the Vision 150 school improvement bond passed last spring. The district committed to making large-scale improvements to the existing grounds, and some work outside is already evident.
One of the signs of progress is a classic feature of the primary school playground will be removed. According to superintendent Dr. Richard Asbill, the miniature cabin that long stood on the primary school playground was removed to make way for the new Early Childhood Development Center.
“It’s in the footprint of where the new early childhood development will be,” said Dr. Asbill. “So, when we discussed demolition, that’s one of the items we decided would be removed.”
According to Asbill, the cabin will be removed by the school’s maintenance department.
He went on to explain this is the first of many upcoming moves showing the focus of ongoing construction efforts to district playgrounds.
“We have some playground improvements planned,” Asbill continued. “Nothing that will quite replace the cabin, but we have some constructions planned for the pre-school expansion. There’s going to be some relocation of the fencing that’s going to give the primary school a little bit more area to play.”
The improvements are slated to be phased in throughout the school year.
For all of the playground improvements, the district awarded the bid to Branco Enterprises, a construction management firm out of Springfield. Branco, as in many other construction needs for the district, will consult with the school on their plans for moving forward, helping to create a construction plan and find qualified contractors.
“We have two playgrounds, the elementary and the intermediate,” said Asbill. “We know that we’re going to extend the footprint of the elementary playground toward the field house at the back of the property.”
Asbill continued, explaining that some of the equipment that will be removed during this process has been on the district’s radar for some time. “There’s a play structure there that was built before we built the new intermediate school,” explained Asbill.
“That structure can’t be used by a lot of our current elementary students. It was built for older kids. We’re going to take it out, and that gives us some area to expand a more grade-level specific playground. We may not be buying a new structure. It may just be an expansion of the play area.”
According to the superintendent, one under-served segment of the playground is the main focus of the project.
“The main focus in that area of the playground is the elementary area is preschool,” he continued. “We want them to have a more defined area that gives those students the ability to have specific structures for their ages.”
The intermediate school playground is also a main focus of improvements.
“As for the intermediate playground, we started some improvements last year with the ADA sidewalk access,” explained Asbill. “What we’re looking to do over there will be two parts. There’s the east side of the playground; that’s a large lawn area that kids use for kickball, dodgeball and other things out there. The challenge to that area is, that since it’s natural grass, kids play on it all the time and it kills the grass.
“We try to replant during the winter and bring it back up, and by the spring, we’re back to planting it again. So, we would like to provide artificial landscape area that would be less maintenance and make it more accessible year-round.”
He continued, “We would also like to continue ADA improvements on that playground,” he explained. “First of all, we want to put in additional sidewalks. Secondly, we would like to look at some rubberized flooring options that would be better for slips, trips and other playground activities.
The plan is to replace the mulch, which retains water for extended periods of time after wet weather and makes it difficult to use the playground regularly in rainy seasons.
Aside from major improvements, Asbill explained once construction begins on the Early Childhood Center later next month, it will afford the district the opportunity to make some major improvements to playground safety.
The school is also planning fencing changes for safety and add some safer walking paths next to elementary to Rocky Edmonson Park.
Major construction on the playgrounds won’t begin during the school year, aside from several pressing issues created by other construction processes.
The bigger aspects of the playground construction wont’ begin until later this year.
Asbill said, “This is a part of Vision 150, but we want to wait until a little later in the year to tackle all of it,” explained the superintendent. “We’re going to lose a portion of the playground area while we’re building the early childhood center. So, we don’t want to lose anymore of the playground than we have to while all of that is off-limits, so we’re going to be phasing it in as needed.”
Vinnie Roberts
Cassville R-IV School District is making progress on the Vision 150 school improvement bond passed last spring. The district committed to making large-scale improvements to the existing grounds, and some work outside is already evident.
One of the signs of progress is a classic feature of the primary school playground will be removed. According to superintendent Dr. Richard Asbill, the miniature cabin that long stood on the primary school playground was removed to make way for the new Early Childhood Development Center.
“It’s in the footprint of where the new early childhood development will be,” said Dr. Asbill. “So, when we discussed demolition, that’s one of the items we decided would be removed.”
According to Asbill, the cabin will be removed by the school’s maintenance department.
He went on to explain this is the first of many upcoming moves showing the focus of ongoing construction efforts to district playgrounds.
“We have some playground improvements planned,” Asbill continued. “Nothing that will quite replace the cabin, but we have some constructions planned for the pre-school expansion. There’s going to be some relocation of the fencing that’s going to give the primary school a little bit more area to play.”
The improvements are slated to be phased in throughout the school year.
For all of the playground improvements, the district awarded the bid to Branco Enterprises, a construction management firm out of Springfield. Branco, as in many other construction needs for the district, will consult with the school on their plans for moving forward, helping to create a construction plan and find qualified contractors.
“We have two playgrounds, the elementary and the intermediate,” said Asbill. “We know that we’re going to extend the footprint of the elementary playground toward the field house at the back of the property.”
Asbill continued, explaining that some of the equipment that will be removed during this process has been on the district’s radar for some time. “There’s a play structure there that was built before we built the new intermediate school,” explained Asbill.
“That structure can’t be used by a lot of our current elementary students. It was built for older kids. We’re going to take it out, and that gives us some area to expand a more grade-level specific playground. We may not be buying a new structure. It may just be an expansion of the play area.”
According to the superintendent, one under-served segment of the playground is the main focus of the project.
“The main focus in that area of the playground is the elementary area is preschool,” he continued. “We want them to have a more defined area that gives those students the ability to have specific structures for their ages.”
The intermediate school playground is also a main focus of improvements.
“As for the intermediate playground, we started some improvements last year with the ADA sidewalk access,” explained Asbill. “What we’re looking to do over there will be two parts. There’s the east side of the playground; that’s a large lawn area that kids use for kickball, dodgeball and other things out there. The challenge to that area is, that since it’s natural grass, kids play on it all the time and it kills the grass.
“We try to replant during the winter and bring it back up, and by the spring, we’re back to planting it again. So, we would like to provide artificial landscape area that would be less maintenance and make it more accessible year-round.”
He continued, “We would also like to continue ADA improvements on that playground,” he explained. “First of all, we want to put in additional sidewalks. Secondly, we would like to look at some rubberized flooring options that would be better for slips, trips and other playground activities.
The plan is to replace the mulch, which retains water for extended periods of time after wet weather and makes it difficult to use the playground regularly in rainy seasons.
Aside from major improvements, Asbill explained once construction begins on the Early Childhood Center later next month, it will afford the district the opportunity to make some major improvements to playground safety.
The school is also planning fencing changes for safety and add some safer walking paths next to elementary to Rocky Edmonson Park.
Major construction on the playgrounds won’t begin during the school year, aside from several pressing issues created by other construction processes.
The bigger aspects of the playground construction wont’ begin until later this year.
Asbill said, “This is a part of Vision 150, but we want to wait until a little later in the year to tackle all of it,” explained the superintendent. “We’re going to lose a portion of the playground area while we’re building the early childhood center. So, we don’t want to lose anymore of the playground than we have to while all of that is off-limits, so we’re going to be phasing it in as needed.”