(Photo: The Trust for Public Land)
April 16, 2018 By Tara Law
A ceremonial groundbreaking took place yesterday for a $1.2 million green playground at I.S. 250—The Robert F. Kennedy Community School.
The revamped school playground, located at 75-40 Parsons Blvd, is slated for completion in fall 2018.
The 398 students at the school contributed to the playground’s design as part of the Trust for Public Land’s Playgrounds program. The program guides children in understanding the science, math and architecture that goes into a designing greenspace.
The new playground, which will be accessible to students as well as the public, will feature a running track, a turf field, basketball practice hoops, tennis courts, outdoor classroom space, game tables, fitness equipment and trees.
The playground’s design will incorporate “green infrastructure.” The green infrastructure will include elements such as turf pods and pervious pavers to prevent water from collecting pollutants and flowing into bodies of water. The playground will also absorb 1.2 million gallons of stormwater annually.
School principal Tara Mrwik thanked the officials for helping the playground come into being.
“We are very excited for the ground breaking event, as the playground has been a long time coming,” said Mrwik.
The Trust for Public Land contributed $333,000 toward the project with $500,000 from Queens Borough President Melinda Katz’ office, 250,000 from Councilman Lancman’s office and the remainder from the Department of Environmental Protection.
“Today’s groundbreaking is a significant investment in the future of Flushing, providing a new state-of the art playground for use by schoolchildren and the entire neighborhood,” said Katz.
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One Comment
That’s fantastic. Truly wish every kid had a safe, modern place to play like that seems it will be.
Though it does make me wonder if this school is like so many others, in terms of lacking space or educational materials or a professional teaching staff or extracurriculars or anything else.
Obviously this is not a matter of poorly-directed funds, as it’s a result of a targeted non-profit partnership. And it’s a very respectable non-profit with a good record of actually teaching kids about land-use planning, construction logistics, etc.
Merely wonder if this is the type of school where the same effort wouldn’t be better spent finding a partnering non-profit that gives out new textbooks or free tutoring, etc.
Not stating an opinion at all here, but would appreciate Tara Law clarifying that aspect.