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<\/p>\nFour years ago the principal of Battalion Park School in southwest Calgary approached Brian and Kristi McKinnon about the school’s two playgrounds.<\/p>\n
At the time, the McKinnons were serving as co-treasurers of the K-6 school’s parent council. The principal told them the more than 15-year-old playgrounds were rapidly nearing the end of their life cycles, and it would be up to the council to fundraise for new ones.<\/p>\n
The McKinnons started a playground fundraising committee and set to work building a fundraising strategy and obtaining project quotes. A year later, they were no further along in raising money for a new park.<\/p>\n
“It was just so daunting,” Brian said.<\/p>\n
As they got deeper into planning, they learned the cost to replace just one playground was going to be at least $500,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Submitted by Kristi McKinnon)<\/p>\n
Now, nearly four years later, the McKinnons are co-chairs of the Signal Hill School Enhancement Society, which looks to enrich school life at Battalion Park as a whole, and are still working to replace the aging playgrounds.<\/p>\n
A recently released city report found hundreds of aging community playgrounds are at risk of closing in the next decade.<\/p>\n
While several city councillors have expressed their support for investing in city-owned playgrounds, for those structures the municipality doesn’t manage, finding the money to replace them falls to parent councils or non-profit boards of directors, who often have limited fundraising experience.<\/p>\n
“The skill set of volunteers varies,” Kristi said. “This is a big project, and it’s a lot for volunteers to take on.”<\/p>\n
A multi-year project<\/p>\n
Battalion Park, part of the Calgary Board of Education, is distinct in that it has two playgrounds, Brian said. The “Mini” playground was built in 2001 when the school started as a collection of portable classrooms, while the “Core” playground was added in 2008 as part of the brick-and-mortar building.<\/p>\n
While the Signal Hill School Enhancement Society has secured enough money through fundraising and grants to start replacing the “Mini” playground, Brian said it will take several more years and an estimated $700,000 to replace the “Core” playground.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
(Submitted by Kristi McKinnon)<\/p>\n
The McKinnons’ son no longer attends the school, yet Brian and Kristi have stayed on to help see the project through, especially as volunteer turnover has been a challenge.<\/p>\n
“I’m not fully invested in the new school yet because we don’t have the capacity to volunteer or support them in the same way that we are still doing at the old school,” Kristi said.<\/p>\n
School playgrounds nearing end of life<\/p>\n
Data provided by Calgary’s two major school boards show several school playgrounds are nearing the end of their lifespans.<\/p>\n
In a statement to CBC News, the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) said the typical life expectancy for a school playground is 15 to 20 years. The average age of its playgrounds is more than 20.<\/p>\n
CBE said it is responsible for maintenance and upkeep, but it “does not receive funding for replacement playgrounds at existing schools.”<\/p>\n
“It is up to the parent community of each school to procure the funds for the design and installation of a school playground through local fundraising, as well as community and provincial grants,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
(Kelsea Arnett\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) did not provide the average age of its playgrounds, but said this year, three of them have been recommended for removal.<\/p>\n
“Within the next five to 10 years, playgrounds at 18 CCSD schools are projected to reach the end of their lifespan,” the CCSD statement said.<\/p>\n
Both CBE and CCSD said staff support parent groups by notifying them of when playgrounds will need replacing, providing permitting and application resources, recommending preferred vendors and outlining available grants.<\/p>\n
The McKinnons said CBE has useful online resources for parent groups, and working with organizations like Parks Foundation Calgary has helped them navigate grant applications.<\/p>\n
Still, they feel having a dedicated school board liaison who could provide advice at the project’s outset would be helpful.<\/p>\n
Cynthia Watson, CEO of Parks Foundation Calgary, said she’s heard from other parent councils experiencing the same difficulties.<\/p>\n
She explained there are various grant options available for school and community playgrounds, including the foundation’s Building Communities program, which provides matching grants of $50,000, and the provincial Community Facility Enhancement Program, which funds half of a selected project.<\/p>\n
“There are other foundations that require groups to have charitable status or qualified donee status, which a lot of the non-profit parent groups wouldn’t typically have,” Watson said. “So that’s how we’re able to help them leverage those kinds of funds.”<\/p>\n
Community non-profits struggle too<\/p>\n
Many non-profits and community associations operating on city land require permission to build or replace playgrounds, Watson said.<\/p>\n
Members of the Inglewood Child Development Centre know this struggle all too well. It’s been working to replace its playground since 2021.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Community association describes challenges of replacing aging playground:<\/p>\n
The non-profit daycare operates out of the Alexandra Centre Society, which leases the land where the playground sits from the city, said Tami Vick, the development centre’s executive director.<\/p>\n
Vick said since they sublease the land from the society, they are responsible for the playground, which has components between 15 and 20 years old.<\/p>\n
“There’s no parts to repair things that are falling apart,” Vick said, adding the centre’s programming relies heavily on outdoor learning.<\/p>\n
“Obviously we need to have that playground, and it’s a huge asset to have for the child-care centre.”<\/p>\n
While the development centre and society work together closely, Vick said the playground is not a priority for the latter, so they have mostly been left to navigate the process of applying for grants on their own.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Aging infrastructure a growing risk in Calgary:<\/p>\n
After years of applying for grants, the centre was approved for provincial funding through the Community Facility Enhancement Program.<\/p>\n
Shara Petrie, one of the centre’s board members involved in applying for grants, noted that while they are happy to finally be moving forward with the project (which they hope to complete this year), many grants are highly competitive or only apply to rural communities.<\/p>\n
“Being inner city, I think it actually is almost a disadvantage sometimes,” Petrie said. “Even though we have a high-density population, the grants that are available aren’t necessarily targeted to communities like ours.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, the City of Calgary said for playgrounds on its land, neighbourhood partnership co-ordinators provide support by explaining municipal processes and sharing information about potential funding avenues. “Given the rising cost of construction and the fact that many grants have funding limits,” the city wrote, it often encourages a “mix of approaches such as partnerships, multiple grants, and community fundraising.”<\/p>\n
As for the McKinnons, they’re happy to see the start of replacement work at Battalion Park. The “Mini” playground is being removed on June 29.<\/p>\n
Kristi said fundraising for the other playground will fall to the incoming group of kindergarten parents. Both her and Brian are stepping down from the parent council at the end of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago the principal of Battalion Park School in southwest Calgary approached Brian and Kristi McKinnon about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[235241,49,2798,201461,48,44029,235242,235243,235244,105457],"class_list":{"0":"post-627793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-battalion-park","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-calgary","11":"tag-calgary-board-of-education","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-fundraise","14":"tag-kristi-mckinnon","15":"tag-mckinnons","16":"tag-parent-council","17":"tag-playgrounds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}