LAPHAM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND RENOVATION AND UPGRADE
Lapham Elementary School is the heart and soul of the Tenney-Lapham community. Small, friendly, accessible, Lapham serves a diverse population of 300+ K-2 students from both sides of the near east side Isthmus area. The neighborhood rejoiced when Lapham reopened in 1989 after ten long years. Its presence brings stability and vitality to the neighborhood, establishes a strong foundation for learning in the neighborhood‚s youngest elementary school students. The presence of this community-based school helps make the Tenney neighborhood one of the most desirable in the city, as is evidenced by the growing numbers of families with children in the neighborhood.
Lapham's playground serves as the neighborhood playground for many of the children of the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, particularly those who live close to the school and/or who are not able to get to Tenney Park on a regular basis. Lapham has been in desperate need of new playground equipment for years. The wooden structures that take up the majority of the playground space are splintering, cracking, and just plain falling-apart, making playing there very unsafe for our children. Sloping pavement in many areas of the playground creates dangerous, large, puddles -- actually, small lakes anytime it rains, making much of the playground unfit to use for play.
Elementary school students need places to run around and play games, but a well-designed playground is much more than a place to work off excess energy. Playgrounds are an integral part of the learning process, helping students learn how to get along with other students, use mind-body coordination, and practice good sportsmanship. Safe, accessible, and thoughtfully-designed playground equipment, made to challenge, interest, and educate children, enables these emerging spirits to blossom. For budgetary reasons, the Madison Metropolitan School District no longer inspects or replaces elementary school playground equipment on any kind of a regular basis. Instead, individual school PTGs raise the necessary money, or district-wide voter referenda include playground renovations for specific schools.
The school district has identified the Lapham playground as unsafe and not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, and has proposed a significant upgrade of the facilities. New, state of the art, vandal-resistant, accessible structures will replace all of the wooden structures currently in place; in addition, the sloping areas of the playground will be corrected and made more level. The school district will pay the estimated $27,000 cost associated with the new structure, which is scheduled for completion this coming summer. As a Lapham parent, a long-time resident of the neighborhood, and a former member of the TLNA Board of Directors, I am thrilled that this long-awaited and badly-needed upgrade is finally going to take place. This project will make the playground safe and exciting for all of the school's students and the kids of the neighborhood.
Anne Katz