Playgrounds to be Rubberized
By Ann McGlynn
Quad
City Times - March 30th 2005
Children at 14 Davenport elementary schools will find rubber
tiles beneath their feet instead of wood chips while they romp on their
school's playground equipment.
A project to replace the chips underneath the district's newer playground
equipment is under way. Harrison Elementary is the first to be done. Madison
Elementary's is under construction. The hope is to have all designated areas
finished by autumn.
The project will be paid for with a combination of state and local grants and
$500,000 from the physical plant and equipment levy, said Bill Good, the school
district's director of operations.
The rubber tiles have several advantages over wood chips, including improved
safety and less maintenance cost, he said. The rubber tiles also allow better
access for children with physical disabilities.
A study paid for by the State of Iowa found that injuries requiring medical
attention decreased by 55 percent when rubber tile was used, he said. Seventy
percent of the injuries are caused by falls to the ground.
The district averages about 40 accidents per year on playgrounds, he added.
Replacement and maintenance of the wood chips on the district's playgrounds are
the responsibility of each school, at a cost of about $9,000 a year, he said.
Many times, parent-teacher organizations pick up some of the bill.
Wood chips, and other types of loose fill, often are scattered as children
play. It can become home to animal waste, bacteria and allergens.
The rubber tiles do not freeze or get muddy, Good said. They also dry quickly.
Heather Olsen, the operations director at the National Program for Playground
Safety at the University of Northern Iowa, was pleasantly surprised by
Davenport's initiative. Her organization administers grants to help with the
cost of installing rubber tiles.
Iowa schools, she noted, received a grade of "C" when it came to playground
safety in a recent nationwide study. Illinois posted a "B+." The surface is a
component of those grades, as is supervision, age-appropriateness, equipment
maintenance and the type and age of equipment.
Eighty percent of the schools, she said, had what is considered appropriate
material on their playgrounds, but just 26 percent had the right depth of that
material. Rubber tile will help with the problem, she added.
Ann McGlynn
can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.
