One Delta elementary school was named in last week’s provincial government announcement of new playground funding.
The province’s Playground Equipment Program (PEP) will see $5 million invested in 30 playgrounds for 24 school districts throughout the province.
Richardson Elementary in North Delta was the one school in Delta to get funding.
Each school district will receive $165,000 toward building each school's new accessible playground. Playgrounds will be designed, built and installed over the next year.
The province last September also had a PEP announcement, which included North Delta’s Jarvis Traditional Elementary.
The province notes that since 2018, the government has invested $30 million in the PEP to fund new playgrounds at 231 schools, benefiting more than 57,000 students and relieving parents of the pressure to fundraise for new playground equipment.
For those Delta schools that aren’t getting funding from the province for new playgrounds, school parent advisory councils have been working with the City of Delta on arrangements.
Because some PACs have been struggling to fundraise compared to others, the city three years ago worked out a revised program with the school district.
The previous funding model required PACs to raise significant portions of the funding for playgrounds and then submit applications for financial contributions from both the City of Delta and the Delta School District.
Delta staff now works with the school district, which will provide a prioritized list of playground replacement requirements on an annual basis. Delta will provide 50 per cent of the annual funding towards publicly accessible school district playground replacements to a maximum of $75,000.
The district developed its prioritized list of all playground equipment needing replacement to ensure that the district will not have to remove serviceable playground equipment within the confines of a larger playground space. The replacement of individual pieces of equipment is instead undertaken.
