ORANGE PARK \u2014 The\u00a0Argyle Elementary\u00a0Pioneers celebrated the\u00a0grand opening\u00a0of a new place for students to explore and play on Jan. 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The school cut the ribbon on its new playground, surrounded by\u00a0Principal Mary Dorsch, Assistant Principals Dr. Casey Leone and Olivia Smith,\u00a0students,\u00a0families,\u00a0members\u00a0of the community\u00a0and Clay County District Schools personnel, including Superintendent David Broskie\u00a0and school board members Erin Skipper and Beth Clark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year at Argyle\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0celebrating 20 years of being Pioneers. So, it was\u00a0very exciting. It almost felt like this beautiful gift for our community, for our school, for our students,\u201d\u00a0Dorsch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a highly\u00a0anticipated\u00a0moment for the school, who underwent extensive renovations early last year, which included painting, new\u00a0carpeting\u00a0and the new\u00a0outside\u00a0play\u00a0area. Construction on the playground\u00a0lasted about five weeks, Dorsch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe process started\u00a0with\u00a0laying out the timeline, you know, what\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to look like. Start preparing our school-based leaders,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she first became principal last year, Dorsch said the playground project was one of the first things she began\u00a0working on.\u00a0The\u00a0original playground, which\u00a0had been around since the school\u2019s opening,\u00a0was in need of maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Faculty and\u00a0students\u00a0were involved with the\u00a0redesign\u00a0process every step of the way, she\u00a0added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\u201cHaving the conversation about different career paths that are\u00a0involved\u00a0in creating the playground so that the kids could not only see a playground being\u00a0built but\u00a0potentially see\u00a0a future and\u00a0maybe a career that they wanted to pursue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dorsch\u00a0said the space is designed as a place for students to run,\u00a0jump\u00a0and learn\u00a0in a safe environment. It features\u00a0custom\u00a0blue and teal slides\u00a0and\u00a0swing\u00a0sets, as well as monkey bars.\u00a0The colors, Dorsch said, reflect the school\u2019s branding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying at the playground is a life skill.\u00a0So, we want to make sure that students are at the center of everything we do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the special ceremony, Argyle Elementary\u00a0fifth-grader\u00a0Mia gave a heartfelt speech about what the new space meant to her. Mia has been with the Argyle family since\u00a0pre-K, Dorsch said.\u00a0Soon after, she picked up the large scissors and snipped the ribbon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With\u00a0every day\u00a0that the new equipment is used, Dorsch said the school has seen an increase in student productivity.\u00a0There are\u00a0fewer\u00a0twiddling thumbs and more engaging\u00a0behaviors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0seeing less of that as\u00a0a student\u00a0population\u00a0because\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0able to engage and play.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0so important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moving forward, Dorsch said the school hopes the playground will\u00a0continue\u00a0to have an outstanding impact on the school\u2019s\u00a0academic,\u00a0social\u00a0and\u00a0extracurricular\u00a0culture. Last year, she said, 90% of students\u00a0said they knew someone at the school believed in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0powerful. For a student to feel like this is their safe place. That is somewhere they can come and be looked after. They can be taught to\u00a0achieve\u00a0academically. So,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0just excited for our culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK \u2014 The\u00a0Argyle Elementary\u00a0Pioneers celebrated the\u00a0grand opening\u00a0of a new place for students to explore and play on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":["post-186738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-argyle","tag-clay-county","tag-doctors-inlet","tag-eagle-harbor","tag-fleming-island","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-keystone-heights","tag-lake-asbury","tag-margaret","tag-middleburg","tag-orange-park","tag-pace-island","tag-penney-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}