MEETING INFORMATION

Two notes on our upcoming meetings:

1) Wednesday @ the Edgerton site - if you'd rather not go through the development, you can turn left off of 122nd onto 164th instead. It is listed as a priviate road. This will get you right to the back of the site. Watch out for the many speed bumps. Be aware that it is muddy and may be rainy (there is no shelter to get under, so an umbrella and shoes that can get a bit dirty would be good). I know a couple of you are coming from other meetings. Call me on my cell, if you are running behind - 732-0303.

2) Next week's 4-7 p.m. meeting (Tuesday, Sept. 26th) will be at Meeker Elementary. I am aware we are all South Hill employees, but Meeker's remodel work was just completed by one of the same construction companies that is working on Edgerton (a good peek) and they have also purchased some furniture that we can see if we like (you will be involved in that decision making later).

BUDGET BACKGROUND INFORMATION

One of the three/four budgets Arturo and I have a bit of control over is the playground equipment (the others being library/technology/furniture). If you are interested in helping with making decisions around playground equipment, let me know. Ultimately, all of the Edgerton Lead Team will be able to give input and will hear from the reps below, but it would be great if some of you could join me in actually looking at the equipment in sites in the area and discussing pros & cons of each - becoming our Lead Team playground experts. We have approximately $70-75,000 to spend on outside play equipment (keep this info. discreet at this time). We are asking some clarifying questions to others in terms of what exactly would not need to be bought by this budget (gym hoops, big-toy ground covering, PE equipment, etc.). We are looking at spending about $40K on a main play structure, then using the remaining budget for basketball hoops, tetherball equipment, those quad-hoops that refeed you the ball once you make a basket, etc.........if you have ideas in this area, let me know, but for know we need to make a main playground structure idea. The playground "big toy" and an electronic reader board were part of the bond so PTA does not have to fundraise for those items, but we may look at some fundraising for a smaller/primary structure to help get more for our kids. We will see how far our money stretches and what the PTA is thinking as it begins to form over the next couple months.

WANT TO HELP WITH OUR PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT?

We are moving right along with choosing our equipment for our playgrounds.
Currently, Arturo and I have met with a rep from the three companies listed below. This does not mean that we are limited to these vendors. However, if the group feels that we have sufficient choices and competitive prices then we may choose to focus on these three companies. Below are some places that a few of us (me and you) may choose to visit, or other locations to be aware of just in case you happen to be in the area and want to take a look. We will coordinate visits for our purposes.

Kompan Company:
http://www.kompan.com/sw23449.asp
Neighbors Park (Tacoma Metro Parks)
McKinley Park (Tacoma Metro Parks)
Powell Barnet Park (352 Martin Luther King Way, Seattle)
New Adventures/Multi-Care Children's Center (1310 S. 4th St. Tacoma)

GameTime/SITELines:
http://www.sitelines.com/
Spinning Elementary
Stewart Elementary

Northwest Playground Equipment/PlayWorld Systems:
http://nwplayground.com/
Maplewood Elementary
Bradley Lake Park

Notice that the reps we met with may have been representing more than one company. I have included the website links to the companies listed above if you're interested in doing some perusing.

Things to keep in mind while looking at these options would be:
Ease of supervision
# of students that it can accomodate
Age appropriateness
All will be ADA accessible
Price
We currently have a 54 ft. diameter circular play area for this to go in. There needs to be a 6 ft buffer from the edge of the enclosure to any equipment, so will it fit?
After shipping, tax and installation (although we would be leaning toward a "volunteer" installation to help with costs), we are looking for a product in the $30,000 range.
All can be "customized".
I have a bunch of catalogs/info., if you want to dig deeper.

The most peculiar equipment is the Kompan - I am attaching a picture of the Arcturus in a follow-up email.

Have a wonderful Tuesday evening - I will see you tomorrow!
Guy