The kindergartners of Glen View Elementary School watched with wide eyes, bouncing on their tip-toes in anticipation as Principal Corina Sapien cut the yellow ribbon that separated them from their new playground Tuesday morning. As the ends of ribbon hit the pavement, the 5- and 6-year-olds swarmed the brightly colored play space, which has been three years in the making.
“This is a very exciting moment for Glen View. When we initially started the project, we hadn’t envisioned this kind of transformation,” Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Flores said. “It totally supports what the kindergarten teachers are doing in the classroom and it gives them some free time to let all this energy out—they have a ton of it at this age.”
The new playground is part of a massive, campus-wide renovation project currently underway at Glen View. The play space includes swings, a modified merry-go-round which allows up to 10 children to sit and stand on it, a two-sided climbing structure featuring rope and large plastic pieces reminiscent of jacks toys in primary colors, as well as a tall and winding slide. The project cost $35,805—paid for with Measure P funds—and was installed by Carmel-based Edwards & Associates. A rectangular concrete path, done by Premier Builders of Gilroy, surrounds the playground which Lea said will be used as a tricycle course in the near future.
The new playground offers a stark contrast to where the kindergartners were playing before. Prior to construction, the playground was on the other side of the building, bordering the street and leaving the children exposed to passersby. The GUSD has since revamped the kindergarten campus, flipping one of the buildings and adding another to create an enclosed space. But all the construction left the children with the options of using the 15-feet of concrete outside the classrooms for recess or making the trek across campus to the school’s other playground. The latter, Sapien said, created even more problems for the kindergarten teachers.
“We have a huge campus out there, so when we bring our kinders out there it’s really hard for supervision. It’s so huge and there’s so many places for kinders to run and hide,” she said. “Having it nice and enclosed here just makes the supervision much easier and much safer for the kids.”
The playground’s new structures now allow for use by children in wheelchairs. All the equipment, except for the slide, is ADA handicap accessible. Now, all of Glen View’s kindergartners can take part in the play time that is crucial to their development.
“There’s a lot of things that we have to do that are necessities, but not as fun. This is one of the fun ones,” GUSD Construction Project Manager Jenny Derry said. “It’s really so important that the kids are able to play at recess and have big muscle movements so that they can pay attention during class—it’s hard to pay attention when you’re 5. For them, this is a big relief to have the playground back and be able to have the kids come right outside and play.”
The new playground can be used by all four kindergarten classes simultaneously. In the past, only two classes were able to take breaks at a time. With three breaks a day—20 minutes in the morning, 30 at lunch and 15 in the afternoon—the kinders now have plenty of space to let out their energy.
“It settles them down because they’ve got to move,” kindergarten teacher Maureen Haney said of play time’s importance. “We have them sitting so much of the day. It’s not natural and normal for a 5-year-old or 6-year-old to sit that long.”
Flores was joined by GUSD trustees James Pace and Pat Midtgaard at the opening. They pushed the laughing kindergartners on the swings and helped supervise them on the playground. Flores said Sapien and the teachers had a lot of input in creating a space that will foster the development of the kindergartners.
“For kindergarten, play is the most important thing,” Glen View kindergarten teacher Kim Lea said. “Kindergarten should be a lot about play: (developing) large motor skills, building their muscles by pulling. Everything goes back into the classroom where they use fine motor skills for writing, so they need to be building those muscles and they need to be socializing. It’s very important.”
The kindergarten area will see even more of a transformation as a fence, grassy area and picnic area—featuring tables with umbrellas—will be added. The project is slated to be complete in October.
“As soon as all that stuff opens up, it’s probably going to be one of the cooler playgrounds in town,” Lea said with a smile.
