City approves $200k for Whittier playground installation
A request for $200,000 of federal funds through the city for a school playground became contentious during the April 5 City Commission meeting.
Great Falls Public Schools requested $200,000 from the city’s Community Development Block Grant funds for a new inclusive playground at Whittier Elementary School.
CDBG funds are administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and are intended for projects and programs in low to moderate income areas.
GFPS requesting federal grant funds for inclusive playground
GFPS submitted the grant request and said in their application that typically, GFPS playground improvements are funded by local PTA fundraising efforts.
“With a high poverty school population, such as Whittier, the necessary connections for PTA fundraising to be effective are more limited as compared to a low poverty school population. This creates inequity for a school such as Whittier. Whittier Elementary is the second highest poverty school in the community and would be the fourth school in the district with a more inclusive playground for children of all abilities,” according to the staff report.
In 2019, the district received $350,000 for an inclusive playground at the new Longfellow Elementary School.
GFPS received $418,200 in donations for Longfellow Elementary School
During the meeting, Tom Micuda, deputy city planning director, said that a planning staff member had noticed fundraising efforts for inclusive playgrounds at other schools so planning staff reached out to GFPS and let officials know they were eligible for CDBG funds for the Whittier project.
“We think it’s a win win for the school and for the community,” Micuda said.
The playground project is eligible CDBG funds under the public facility and improvements category and city staff consulted the Denver HUD office to ensure its eligibility, Micuda said.
There are available funds in the current CDBG allocation and there are no competing applications for the funds, Micuda said.
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Commissioners Joe McKenney and Rick Tryon said that thought it was strange that the school district would request CDBG funds and that the district has its own funding.
Tryon said that the district got a $100 million bond for facilities and also received federal COVID relief funds and questioned whether the district should get CDBG funds when they have those funds.
The bond facility funds were specific for major facility improvements, including the construction of new schools, and those funds were obligated from the beginning.
The COVID relief funds have specific regulations and the district had to submit their plans for facility improvements to the Montana Office of Public Instruction for approval. The state approved the requested projects for windows and ventilation improvements at several schools and the addition of new classrooms at one school.
Micuda said the district is contributing $30,000 to the Whittier playground project.
McKenney and Tryon asked whether the district had solicited bids for the project and wanted to table the action to a future meeting to get that information.
The Electric emailed the district about that question during the commission meeting and in an April 6 response, Brian Patrick, the district’s business operations manager, said that “districts are able to use purchasing cooperatives to buy playground equipment. The purchasing cooperative has already bid out and approved the equipment. The coop that was used for the playground equipment was NASPO.”
Commissioner Eric Hinebauch said that the commission should vote since staff vetted the project properly and whether the district has ARPA funds isn’t part of the review process.
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He said that even if the district had ARPA funds that were eligible for the playground project, “is that being the best steward of the funds?”
He said that he understands the questions being asked by McKenney and Tryon but “being the best steward of this money, we should vote yes on this” and let the district use their ARPA funds for other needs.
Micuda said that whether the district had other funding sources was discussed by the application review committee, but considered the bigger picture of what this project could achieve in terms of providing a publicly accessible playground in a low to moderate income area and that CBDG funds were available.
“The overall public good of the project outweighed the question of how much more the school district could or should put into the project,” Micuda said.
Whittier Elementary reopens Feb. 25 [2021]
School playgrounds are typically open to the public when school is not in session.
Morgan Yegerlehner, a speech pathologist who lives in the Whittier area.
“This is a community space, therefore community funds could and should be used to build this playground,” she said.
Brenda Landsdale, a retired teacher who taught at Whittier, said “those kids and that community deserve this playground. They play on a bed of pea gravel. They have old old basketball hoops.
She said they had one new piece of playground equipment that had been new when she worked there and she retired years ago.
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“I really want this commission to think about this, it is needed. I urge you, I urge you to make this happen,” she said.
Jessica Crist was PTA president at Whittier when Landsdale was a teacher.
“Your assessment of the Whittier PTA to attempt to raise a huge amount of money is totally different
“It’s not an us versus them, city versus school district, it’s all of us,” she said. “This is our community.”
She said that PTAs don’t have equal membership at all schools and income levels are different at different schools.
Sherrie Arey, director of NeighborWorks Great Falls, read from the CDBG compliance handbook that states CDBG funds are to support neighborhood revitalization efforts, social benefit and a sense of community.
“It is right in line with why CDBG is used for neighborhood revitalization,” she said of the Whittier playground, since the Natatorium has closed in that area and when the new pool facility is completed, the city recreation center in the area will also likely be shuttered.
“This playground is in a neighborhood in an area most in need of revitalization,” Arey said.
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Carrie Parker, director of the Helping Hands food pantry, said that the Whittier PTA will not be able to raise the money needed for the playground equipment.
“This is absolutely the right thing to do,” she said.
The motion to delay the vote on the request to a future meeting failed 2-2 and Hinebauch moved to approve the funding.
Tryon said it was a worthy project so he’d vote in favor, but wanted more information from the district on whether their COVID relief funds could be used for the playground.
McKenney said he had intended to vote against the project but after hearing from the public changed his mind.
The commission approved the funding 4-0. Mayor Bob Kelly was absent.
Playground installation is scheduled for this summer.
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The project includes removing existing dilapidated play structures, replacing pea gravel with a “safe and accessible surface material creating a zero transition from asphalt to play surface” and the purchase and installation of new inclusive play equipment, according to the staff report.
GFPS is planning to also update the exterior basketball hoops and asphalt in the near future with other funding.
