Trustee Casey Cook was out walking his dogs when he saw a hockey box at Glenbrook Middle School that stopped him in his tracks.
Cook's hockey-box sighting might not have been a big deal, except that the two-term trustee thought the board was going to develop guidelines on how it responds to playground requests before the box went in.
"What really prompted this was the hockey box at Glenbrook and that process," Cook said, referring to the motion he brought forward at a meeting last week for the district to develop guidelines when considering playground requests. "I was surprised when I walked to Glenbrook and saw it in place - that surprised me. I thought we were going to be working on some criteria."
The hockey-box situation started when a group of students from École Herbert Spencer sent a letter to the board asking that one get built at Glenbrook.
"If we are going to have one hockey box, I think undoubtedly we are going to have requests for other hockey boxes," Cook said.
He wants the guidelines that include costs, budget implications, availability of space, demand, safety and contextual suitability.
Trustee MaryAnn Mortensen supported the call for developing criteria and making it clear to parents, recalling when the Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary parent advisory council raised $40,000 for a new playground. At the time, the parents didn't know how to get reimbursed for the sales taxes they paid for the playground.
"It's incumbent upon us to make sure that information is available to every parent," she said.
The hockey box cost the school district $8,000, secretary-treasurer Al Balanuik told The Record.
"It's hugely popular," Balanuik said about the hockey boxes at some schools in the district. "Kids that aren't playing are watching."
Superintendent John Gaiptman said the funds for the hockey box come out of the district's facilities budget, not it's operating budget.
Trustees voted to have staff to report back to the school board on a process to receive requests for additions and/or modifications to school playgrounds. Staff expects to bring a report on playground requests back to the board next month, Gaiptman said.
