The playground at Turner Parents as Teachers, adjacent to Sixth Grade Academy, had their loose mulch playground surface upgraded to a poured-in-place rubberized soft surface this August. The loose mulch surface tends to cause a mess by getting in clothes and shoes, which carries the mulch into the building. So, when Supervisor of Facilities Chris Crockett saw an opportunity to apply for funding for a new rubberized surface, he took it.

The funding was being offered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Keep it Clean Kansas Program. The program states, “Keep It Clean Kansas is a program of the Kansas Department of Health & Environment Bureau of Waste Management. The mission of this program is to educate Kansas residents on waste reduction and recycling in hopes that those messages will be carried out in homes and communities throughout Kansas. The Bureau of Waste Management is responsible for recycling, composting, and household hazardous waste efforts in the state. The grant program offered to pay for half of the cost while the district was required to provide funding for the remainder. USD 202 utilized money from the Capital Improvement Fund for this project.

Crockett applied on behalf of the district in fall 2022 and was notified in spring 2023 that the playground was chosen as one of the projects that KDHE would help fund. “The new surface provides a cleaner, safer play space,” said Crockett. “Thank you to KDHE’s Keep it Clean Kansas program for this opportunity!”