New playground plans for Pine Island Elementary
According to Pine Island Elementary School Principal Tom Millins, the School District of Lee County is in the final stages of allocating funds to purchase two new playground areas for the students at Pine Island Elementary School.
“If any individuals would like to support this by helping with donations, they can contact me directly, or they can call the school and the money would be put into a playground account,” said Millins. “We haven’t had a playground here in 17 or 18 years, so this is new for us, we’re very excited about this.”
This playground initiative, Millins said, will consist of two different playgrounds that will accommodate K-2 grade levels and 3-5 grade levels. These two playgrounds will encompass age appropriate playground equipment that will meet the needs of each of these grade levels. Each playground will have various playground apparatuses and equipment that is of high interest to children.
In the last couple of weeks, the students and staff were notified of the playground options and were able to vote for their playground choice.
Although, he said, the K-2 and 3-5 playgrounds will certainly add to the school, they still have some additional needs for this area of the school. In an effort to accommodate these additional needs, they are reaching out to community organizations and community members to solicit funds to purchase sunshades to cover parts of the playground and for areas that teachers can supervise students in a shaded environment.
According to Millins, they are also requesting benches for teachers to supervise students and an extra swing set area for the K-2 playground.
“At this time, we are soliciting numerous companies for bids on various sunshades and benches,” Millins said. “Once we have the final bids, we will be reaching out to local community organizations that would like to contribute to this most worthwhile school/community initiative.”
Pine Island Elementary School is located at 5360 Ridgewood Drive, Bokeelia. For additional information, please call the school at 239-283-0505.