While the City and Borough of Juneau and its school district zero in on designs and project costs, elementary-age students at Dzantik’i Heeni play on a dirt field at recess instead of a playground.
The former middle school currently houses Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi Alternative High School and K-8 schools Montessori Borealis and Juneau Community Charter School, after the Juneau School District consolidated to make up for budget shortfalls last year.
But that campus wasn’t set up for young kids.
Juneau student Gavin Lium lives in the area and spoke to Assembly members Monday in support of building a new playground.
“We need more than a dirt field and the hope of a future playground. You have the power to make sure we get the playground we need, not just someday, but now. This is our chance to do it right,” Lium said.
The city put $75,000 toward designing a playground last June. Now they’re working with the district to decide on a final design.
According to memorandums from December, the initial playground design would cost $1.8 million to build. The borough’s Public Works and Facilities Committee requested new designs at about a third of the price.
Denise Koch is the borough’s Director of Engineering and Public Works.
She says a joint committee made of the borough and district’s facilities committees requested new designs again in January at higher price points from $889,000 to $1.5 million.
Koch said the committees will continue discussing the designs and budget options. She said the only funding set aside for the project so far has just been to design the playground.
“There is no budget to construct that playground, so that will be part of the decision making and part of the discussion,” Koch said.
The school district’s Facilities Committee met Tuesday to discuss the new designs.
Koch says the next step is for the district board to send feedback before a joint committee meets again. A date has not been finalized for the next meeting.
