Meeting with the Vancouver School Board representative

Today we met with VSB's Grounds Maintenance Supervisor and found out
some very interesting information.

• Sand play areas are supposed to be covered in order to keep out the neighbourhood cats, but an open long-jump pit is absolutely fine and will even be replenished with a fresh load of sand every year by the VSB.
• We are allowed to use logs for climbing ( and sitting ) as long as we comply with the requirements for a safe landing surface.
• We may create a water play area, which collects water from a rainstorm, as long as we make sure the water drains away within a reasonable amount of time.
• We can't designate any area as "soccer field", because each bump in the surface then becomes a liability issue. Higher perimeter fencing can be installed in order to prevent the balls from landing on the street, but no permanent "goals" may be installed.
• The VSB gets regular requests from ( construction ) companies who want to donate their time and expertise to the building of school playground elements. VSB employees are required to do the grounds preparation, but they allow play elements to be installed by the community.
• For any garden, or planted area, to be approved we need to prepare a solid maintenance plan. Support from the new principal and from teachers is a key requirement. Garden care would need to be part of the curriculum.

It seems that some of the rules regarding the use of logs, sand, water and rocks
have loosened considerably, which would give us the option of creating an
"adventure" type play landscape. We could explore the possibility of integrating
traditional playground elements, such as monkey bars and slides into this kind
of playscape.