McDonald School Play Structure

In more McDonald School news, there’s a new play structure on the way (or, in the modern lingo, “playscape”). Project Coordinator Kathleen Ellsbury writes:

Looks like we’ll have a new play structure at McDonald School before long! With funds from the neighborhood, some employers, King County Youth Sports Facilities Grant program, and the City of Seattle’s neighborhood Matching Fund, we will be able to prepare for and install the structure below, as well as a concrete border and two concrete disability-compatible ramps.

After reviewing the cost of site preparation with the contractor who bid on the project, it was apparent that the second-ranked choice (from community meetings) fit best within our budget and available funding.

This structure has moveable parts (the yellow cones), is functionally linked (by the green “mushrooms”) to the existing blue-green structure to the south of this proposed structure.

Preparation of the site will begin this week. The excavation boundaries have been laid out, and a chain link fence will be brought in, to run east-west just south of the blue-green play structure, from the Latona fence to the school building, putting the north part of the play field off limits until the new play structure is installed and approved by the District. I will keep you posted about dates of completion of site preparation, main post installation, and installation of the structure itself. The structure installation will require 2-4 dedicated volunteers to set the main posts, and 10-12 volunteers each day on a weekend to put up the structure itself. I hope all this can take place within 4-6 weeks.

We still need your help this summer. We need a construction team volunteer coordinator, and a community celebration coordinator as well, so I’d welcome volunteers for those roles. Playscapes Northwest will provide the structure and construction supervision, and Spiritridge Construction will do the site preparation.

If anyone wants to know the details of how we arrived at this decision, feel free to contact me. We have gone through an extended process of community involvement, design discussions, and multiple bids to reach this point, and now it’s becoming a reality.

Thank you to everyone who has helped in some way with this project.

If you’d like to get involved, reach out to [email protected]