Posted 10:48 pm Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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Arp students on their way to getting new playground equipment
Arp students appear closer to getting a new playground.
As of Monday afternoon, Arp Elementary School was ranked fourth out of about 500 schools in the Play category of The Clorox Co.'s Power A Bright Future Program.
The school is asking the public to cast votes in support of it winning up to $50,000 from the program. The funds would be used for playground renovation.
"I'm very proud of all the work the teachers at the elementary and parents at the elementary have done," Jennifer Stanley, an Arp ISD parent, said. "They worked to pass out fliers at different stores in Tyler, and I'm proud of their hard work."
PTO president Patricia Parnell agreed, saying support has been tremendous, and she is grateful for everyone who stood behind Arp by voting or getting the word out.
"I think that it's great that we've gotten where we are being such a tiny town. ... To get from (No.) 59 (three weeks ago) to (No.) 4 is great," she said.
About 100,000 votes still are needed to get Arp to the No. 1 spot.
If it does continue to do well, the school will receive funds to provide a new playground for students.
Karen Maxwell, an Arp Elementary PTO officer, said last month that the school had a larger playground for older children, but it was taken down to make room for a new gym. The current playground is only for prekindergarten through first grade.
Second- through fifth-graders have a basketball goal and hula hoops to use during recess or they can play in the woods, Ms. Maxwell has said.
But the school hopes to change that by building a new playground on some land behind the school.
Ms. Maxwell has said the land will have to be leveled and cleaned off, but the goal is to end up with a playground that has slides and swings.
"The kids work really hard every day at our school," she said last month. "Every day they go to school (from) 7:55 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. (With) all the pressure on taking (standardized tests) and everything we push them to do academically, they're still little kids, and they still need to release some of that, and when they have recess, we would like them to have something else to do besides play in the woods."
Ms. Parnell has said the students need something to play on that's more stationary and up-to-date.
Adults and children 13 and older can vote through midnight Wednesday by texting 2216pbf to 95248 and going to www.powerabrightfuture.com. Residents can vote online and through text.
Ms. Parnell said the program with the highest number of votes will receive the $50,000 grant while the next top vote-getters in the Play, Create and Explore categories respectively will each receive a $25,000 grant. She said a judge's panel will choose an additional three schools, one in each category, to receive a $25,000 grant.
