Greenville to install ADA compliant playground equipment

Dec. 9--GREENVILLE -- Some Greenville Elementary School students with disabilities will soon be able to join their peers on the playground.

With help from the Greenville Area School District Educational Foundation, the district will install Americans with Disabilities Act compliant playground equipment next year.

The district purchased the pieces for a total of $44,000, Superintendent Brian Tokar said.

"We have a commitment from the education foundation to fund half of it," he said. "They're still accepting donations."

The selected pieces are designed to make sure all students can play together, Tokar said.

"It's intended to be inclusive," he said of the new playground equipment.

Some of the re-purposed playground equipment was taken from the former East Elementary School and transferred to Greenville Elementary School last year, Tokar said.

"The ultimate goal (of the foundation) is to help raise needed funds for the school district, playground, scholarships for graduating seniors and grants for teachers to help them in the classroom," said Mario Marini, Greenville Area School District Educational Foundation president.

The independent 501C3 corporation was incorporated last year, Marini said. Currently, seven of the nine board members are Greenville High School alumni while the other two members have had children progress through the district. In addition to Marini, Kim Ohr, Dennis Nichols, John O'Malley, Gary Jones, Jeff Wallace, Ryan Nicklin, Barry Oman and Evan Gruver comprise the board.

"Currently, we are still raising funds for the playground," Marini said. "The need is out there. There's students within the district that have a need."

Marini estimates the projected playground costs to be about $90,000, he said.

"It's also a community-wide thing that can be utilized on the weekends," Marini said of the playground.

The foundation is looking to raise an additional $25,000 to help cover the costs of the new ADA-compliant playground equipment, he said.

"Currently, we've raised a little over half of that," Marini said. "We do have some proposals out there for grant funding."

Additionally, the Greenville Area School District Educational Foundation is looking to fill a position on its board, Marini said. Anyone interested may submit a letter of interest to the school district at Greenville Area School District Educational Foundation, Attn: Superintendent Brian Tokar, 9 Donation Road, Greenville, PA 16125.

"It's already a great district and we want to make it even better," Marini said.

Like Heidi Warren on Facebook or email her at hwarren@sharonherald.com.

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