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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
June 13, 2018 Page 9 Mississippi Alberta North Portland Vancouver East County Beaverton photo by d anny p eterson /t he p ortland o bserver James John Elementary School Principal Samantha Regaisis (left) and Parent volunteer Noelle Guest band together with other community members to raise funds for a new playground at their north Portland school. The old playground was deemed dangerous by the school district and torn down last year, but the district won’t pay for a replacement, so they started a GoFundMe page. Recess on the Line Community rallies to rebuild playground by d anny p eterson t he p ortland o bserver Community members have created a GoFundMe page to help build a new play- ground at James John Elementary in north Portland because the district won’t pay for a new one, organizers said. Unsafe equipment was removed from the school by the district last year, but Port- land Public Schools doesn’t have funds allocated specifically to rebuilding play- grounds, the school’s principal Samantha Ragaisis told the Portland Observer. Located in the heart of the St. Johns neighborhood and serving a population in which 94 percent of its families are low income, the school needs at least $55,000 to refurbish the now mostly barren play- ground on the corner of North Kellogg Street and Leavitt Avenue. Thanks in part to parent volunteer No- elle Guest’s fundraising organizing, the school has received a generous grant from Nike and donations from the school’s Par- ent Teacher Association, which combined got them $35,000. Last month they started a GoFundMe page to raise the remaining $20,000. They’re now less than $10,000 away from that goal. That $55,000 price tag would double in cost with a more wheelchair-accessible plan. “If we added the best choice for ADA ac- cessibility, and fall impact, and low main- tenance and durability, it would add about another $50,000 to that number,” Guest said, acknowledging with a laugh that un- less, “Manna from heaven, an angel from above drops 50K on us, and that would be so splendid....we expect that we’ll be going with the 55K version.” The school has a second playground, but accommodating its 370 students with the only one play area that has equipment has caused problems with crowding. “We can’t accommodate all those chil- dren,” the principal said. “It’s not safe. And it’s a matter of being safe for our students and for parents to know, when their chil- dren go outside, that there’s room for them to play and be active without bumping and hitting and knocking each other down.” As a former PE and health teacher, and coach, Ragaisis knows how important it is to give children physical activity in order for their brains to function at peak perfor- mance. Teachers have reported that students who end up at the playground without equipment have more pent up energy, frus- tration, discipline problems and competi- tion. Instead of engaging in healthy play, they end up running around in circles or throwing bark chips at each other, Ragaisis said. The school has until the end of the month to collect all the funds they’ll use C ontinued on p age 14