What began as a bid for a shade shelter on Newman’s preschool playground in 2020 is now a half-million dollar rebuild and upgrade entering the final stages of approval.
Complicated by COVID-19, geology and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, the five-year effort has undergone multiple design, location and cost revisions. In addition to the shade structure, project plans now include new climbing equipment, shaded swingsets, a fence and poured-in-place surface.
Some doubt the project will ever cross the finish line. The project still faces the town manager’s review, a Select Board vote, a Finance Committee recommendation and a Town Meeting vote.
“We’d had so many setbacks and hiccups,” preschool director Daniel Cohen said, “that it got to a place where I was like, I can’t keep going to my staff and saying, ‘Hey, we’re about to get this new playground,’ because nobody even believed me anymore.”
If it gets built the new playground will be a valuable asset to Newman’s preschoolers, Cohen said.
The current playground has been patched over by the school in an attempt to address safety concerns. Adding fence guards and sealing crumbled surface areas, however, fail to address the playground’s biggest drawback: exposure to constant sunlight.
“Approximately half of the children who attend the preschool have special needs, including some students with sun sensitivity,” the 2020 capital funding request to Town Meeting states. “As a result, students’ access to the playground is limited to cloudy days or to mild weather.”
A need for shade is where the project began five years ago.
“We had requested and received from Town Meeting a little under $70,000 toward the installation of a custom shade shelter, which is sort of like a shade structure that looks like a set of giant sails on a ship,” Needham Public Schools’ assistant superintendent for finance Anne Gulati said.
The remaining $30,800 was to come from fee revenues in the preschool’s revolving fund. The sail structure was purchased and excitement mounted.
“We were even at that point where I remember the previous director walking around to our classrooms, selecting different colors of the fabric that we were going to be choosing. You know, do we want blue? Do we want yellow?” said Cohen, one of Newman’s special education teachers at the time.
However, the pandemic delayed installation. Then the playground surface was found to be deteriorating and engineers determined that, despite the design team’s assurances, shade sails could not be constructed without major installation complications — bumping the price to $260,000.
Credit: Needham Observer
“The giant sail structures had to be sunk pretty deeply into the earth in order for them to be solid,” said Gulati. “And underneath, the land was shale and other types of matter that would be very difficult to sink those footings into.”
No vendors bid on the project, and the committee went back to the drawing board. This time, designs replaced shade sails with climbing equipment featuring built-in shade structures and a new poured-in-place surface.
The town meeting approved another $54,000 for the project, before an architect found that pouring a new surface would trigger an ADA requirement to level the playground.
The cost? $600,000.
“We then decided that replacing the playground as it existed in the location that it existed was cost prohibitive and probably infeasible due to circumstances under the soil, and that we should select a new site,” Gulati said.
The new project site is located near the entrance of Newman’s main building, a sidewalk-distance away from the existing playground. The design drafted by engineering firm Tighe & Bond, while featuring all-new equipment and surfaces, includes the sail structure purchased for the original plans.
The project budget is now $539,200. Discounting the $123,200 already allocated, $105,600 from the preschool fund balance and a $70,000 contribution from Parks and Recreation, $240,400 is needed to complete the playground. Until funding is secured, town engineer Tom Ryder says the project is in a holding pattern.
“We are hopeful that it will be funded,” Gulati said. “I know that this has been a project in the works for quite a while, and there are a lot of people who would like to see this happen.”
Once the project is financed, Cohen plans to pull in key voices, like Newman’s physical therapist, to inform equipment purchases and final design decisions.
“Not only do we need a playground that’s appropriate for preschool-age students, but we need a playground that’s appropriate for students with disabilities so that they can have that equity and fair access to our structures and equipment as well,” he said.
The old playground is set to be demolished and the area reseeded following new construction.
At the end of the day, Newman’s hopes for the playground are simply for it to exist.
“That would be just such a huge win with everything that it’s gone through,” said Cohen. “For it to happen and be put into action, and just be a modern design that’s going to be more accessible to our students, safer for our students.”
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