Playground equipment purchased for new preschool area at Beatrice elementary project

BEATRICE – The Beatrice School Board has approved the purchase of new playground equipment and surfacing that will be located along the east side of the new elementary facility, near the preschool section.

The purchase, for $182,000 through Cunningham Recreation, was approved by the board Monday night. Superintendent Jason Alexander said the decision was made not to simply move equipment from the current preschool in west Beatrice.

"We seriously considered that, but there were a couple of things that got in the way of that. Number one, is that when you move playground equipment, the integrity of the structure gets sacrificed. And when that happens, we also lose the warranty on that playground equipment."

The cost to acquire new equipment of $182,000 compared with the cost to move the old equipment….at about $150,000.  "It made the most sense to leave the bigger pieces out there. The city, we had conversations with them in taking over the building....we'll leave that for a park on that side of town. There are also some other things in the works with that building that will lend very nicely to leave that playground structure out at the current preschool site."

The board previously purchased playground equipment last November for the west end of the new school…to be used by the upper grades of the facility.
The new equipment would be ADA accessible and Alexander said the it would also become a national demonstration model…which he said is a first in Nebraska.

Possible funding sources for the playground equipment include special education funding, Parent Teacher Organization donations, building funds at current elementary schools, Blue Valley Community Action Head Start donations….and support from the district’s building depreciation budget. The equipment carries a lifetime warranty.

The board of education also approved purchase of new kindergarten through eighth grade math textbooks, from Envision Mathematics….at a cost of just over $164,000 for students kindergarten through grade five…..and just under $67,000 for grades six through eight.