In CMS, playground time can be scarce at overcrowded schools

Playground time is an iconic part of elementary school life. But on overcrowded campuses in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, time on the classic schoolyard ladders, chutes and slides can be hard to come by.

Unless their schools can find $100,000 – and enough physical space – students often have to rotate through the bus lot or ball fields before getting back on the playground equipment later in the week. It’s up to school administrators to work it out so the children can get their half-hour of required recess time each day.

“As you grow in size, you really have to find a way to do that for your kids,” said Elon Park Elementary Principal Chuck Fortuna.

His Ballantyne school is now in the running for a $78,000 grant from the Jimmie Johnson Foundation to increase the size of its playground – which has climbing rocks, loops to hang from and a rope ladder – to catch up with enrollment at the school.

Elon Park wants to allow children to use the playground more often during the week, with the goal of getting them there every other day. Right now, the youngest students get to use the equipment most days, while older students go less than every other day, said principal Chuck Fortuna.

The school has a student capacity of 814. This year, more than 1,100 students come through the doors. Mobile classrooms took up a lot of the green space that had once been used for play, Fortuna said. And the two existing playgrounds quickly fill up.

The school’s PTO has spent the past two years raising money to build a third playground, and has pulled together about $45,000 so far, PTO president and parent Kelly Ludwick said. That’s been enough to fence off a new playground space and start buying equipment for it. The grant money would fill it out the rest of the way.

“Our school has grown in leaps and bounds beyond anyone’s expectations,” Ludwick said. “I’m actually thrilled that we’ve been able to do this.”

Spokeswoman Renee McCoy said CMS does not lay out a specific ratio of pieces of playground equipment per student. The district is in the second year of a roughly $600,000 grant program to buy more playground equipment at 26 elementary schools.

Sixty-four of the 91 CMS elementary schools are over capacity. Even with help, these overcrowded schools have had to be creative to get playground time for their students.

Selwyn Elementary has been lucky to be able to use space at neighboring A.G. Middle and Myers Park High on top of its large 212-acre campus, principal Shane Lis said. A total of 850 students attend the school, with a building capacity of 490.

The school’s PTA also recently put the finishing touches on a fourth playground at the school. Still, administrators have set specific quotas for how many classes can be on each play area at a time, and the school is careful not to schedule any special events without checking with its neighbors first. Classes rotate through the different play areas on campus.

“It does create some logistical challenges,” Lis said. “As we continue to grow, it will be more of a challenge.”

Albemarle Road Elementary, the third-most crowded school in CMS, has put together a master schedule to manage when students can use the cafeteria, playgrounds, and even when they can be in the hallways, principal Tyler Ream said.

This year, Ream has managed to get every child access to the playground every day. Albemarle Road Middle next door has let the elementary school students play soccer on an empty field adjacent to the school, freeing up playground space.

But that only came after CMS spent last year installing two new playgrounds on campus, Ream said. Before that, he said, “Our kids played on a bus lot. And that doesn’t work. Not for parents, not for kids.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2015 at 3:30 AM with the headline "In CMS, playground time can be scarce at overcrowded schools."