SAINT CLAIR - The Saint Clair Area Elementary/Middle School's $8.8 million expansion project will take outdoor recreation to new heights.
Since a proposed two-story building will be built on top of the school's current playground at 227 S. Mill St., Superintendent Kendy K. Hinkel said a new playground will be set up on top of it.
It will be first rooftop playground of its kind in Schuylkill County.
But others exist in the state - there's one at Reading School District in Berks County at the Amanda Stout/Benners Court Elementary School facility, Timothy Eller, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said Tuesday.
"I think it's a very good idea. I heard there will be new equipment. And being on the roof might give the students more fresh air," Quinn Cromyak, an eighth-grade student at the school, said Monday.
But not everyone agrees.
"I don't agree with putting a new playground above ground level, I mean three stories up? No way. I feel some kind of accident could occur, someone falling. Sure, they can put up a fence, but still, you never know," said Charlie E. Thomas, who graduated from the former Saint Clair High School in 1974 and lives down the street from the school.
Dr. Donna Thompson, executive director for the National Program for Playground Safety, a nonprofit organization in Cedar Falls, Iowa, said Thursday she'd never heard of an elementary or middle school playground being established on roof.
"We encourage them to make sure they have plenty of fencing to prevent kids from falling off. I don't think a 10-foot fence would be out of the question. You want to make sure the children aren't able to climb over it," Thompson said Thursday.
The state department of education supports roof playgrounds when schools don't have the opportunity to establish one on the ground.
"And it's recommended they have higher knee walls and a fully-fenced enclosure over the entire playground acting as walls and roof," Eller said.
Hinkel said the rooftop playground at Saint Clair will have a fence which will be at least 12 feet high.
"There's a masonry wall surrounding the perimeter of the roof. Then there will be a 12-foot fence which will arc inward, so basketballs, for example, will roll back into the play area. I don't have the specs with me, but the fence may be a little taller than that," Hinkel said Thursday.
"You have to make it extremely difficult for kids to go over the top," Thompson warned.
Eller said rooftop playgrounds will offer schools "enhanced security."
"The only way to the playground, and to the children, is via the school itself," Eller said Tuesday.
Saint Clair Area Elementary/Middle School educates children in grades kindergarten through eighth. Its 14,256-square-foot playground, established in 1990, is located at the southeast corner of East Railroad and South Mill streets.
The building was originally Saint Clair High School, which was constructed in 1937.
In December 1988, Saint Clair Area school board reported a steady decline in student enrollment at its high school in 1986 and 1987. Instead of raising taxes to pay teacher salaries, the board decided to close its high school after the 1988-89 school year and transfer its 230 high school students to Pottsville Area on a tuition basis. Saint Clair Area High School graduated its 55th and final class on June 13, 1989. It consisted of 73 students, according to The Republican-Herald archives.
In 1990, the Saint Clair Area school board established the Saint Clair Area Elementary/Middle School there. During a renovation project which continued into 1991, a courtyard area was converted into the existing playground, Hinkel said.
The latest expansion project is to accommodate the school district's increasing student population. The current student population is 597, according to Hinkel.
The $8.8 million project will add six classrooms, two special education rooms, a music room, a large instruction room, a second elevator and a series of improvements to the existing elementary/middle school, including the installation of rubber flooring in the main hallways.
The school's current parking lot contains eight regular spaces and two spaces for handicapped parking. A total of 23 more regular parking spaces and two more handicapped parking spaces will be included in the renovation, Hinkel said Monday.
The current playground will be eclipsed in this wave of change.
"From a zoning perspective and a community relations perspective, we needed to something with the parking here," Hinkel said.
While considering options in February 2011, representatives of Foreman Architects Engineers, Manheim, took school representatives, including Hinkel, on a trip to see a playground established on a roof of a early childhood center in Hoboken, N.J.
"Establishing the playground on the roof was our only viable option. We either had to go up or we weren't going to have the kind of play yard that we needed," Hinkel said.
The new playground will be very close in size to the current one, Hinkel said.
The school board opened bids for a general contractor on Feb. 6 and may hire one at its next meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. March 14, according to Hinkel.
Hinkel anticipates the ground breaking will be in May and the 14-month construction project will wrap up in summer 2013.
For tips, Thompson encouraged school officials to read two guides published by National Program for Playground Safety for tips on assembling this playground: "Building Playgrounds: A Guide to the Planning Process" and "S.A.F.E. Play Areas: Creation, Maintenance, and Renovation." Both are available at playgroundsafety.org.