Playing Smart changelabsolutions.org | kaboom.org 34 Under the plan, TUSD would be responsible for maintenance and upgrade costs at all school playgrounds and fields throughout the school year. The city would take over maintenance and equipment costs during summer months. In exchange, the schools would open gates or take down fences and make these spaces available to the public after school hours and on weekends. The up-front expenses were minimal – typically just minor repairs or resurfacing. Adding the sites to the city’s summer maintenance responsibilities would cost about $4,000 a year per schoolyard. There were some initial safety and liability concerns. Some parents and school administrators were worried that removing barriers to playgrounds would increase loitering, graffiti, vandalism, underage drinking on school grounds, and incidents of people not picking up after their dogs in areas used by children. The Tucson Police Department agreed to do regular patrols at each schoolyard covered by a joint use agreement, and its role was written into the agreement. This arrangement encouraged community buy-in. The city attorney helped the parties form an intergovernmental agreement in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), and the city and TUSD started identifying schools to include. Because of budget limitations, the agreement was limited to 12 school sites: two TUSD elementary schools in each of the city’s six wards. The parks department and TUSD selected schools that were furthest from other parks and playgrounds. The agreements are working out well. “The play equipment and fields get a lot of use after school hours,” says Gary Scott, a manager in the city’s parks and recreation department. “One feature of our joint use agreement that truly benefits the community is that we built sustainability into it by establishing a term of 25 years, so the current arrangement will be in place for at least that long.” They’ve also seen a reduction in vandalism, which school officials and city staff attribute to higher usage rates. “When the playgrounds were locked up and infrequently used, kids were sneaking in, and that’s when they would do the damage,” says Annemarie Medina, the mayor’s constituent advocate. “Now, knowing anyone can walk in at any time, they must be afraid of getting caught if they are doing something wrong, so they don’t do it. That was a nice by-product of the joint use agreements.” By leveraging existing play opportunities, Tucson expanded play opportunities at relatively little cost. Each of the city’s six wards now has two additional playgrounds, located specifically in communities with the largest deficit of play space. “We’re recapturing our neighborhoods for our kids,” Glassman says. “It sends the right message.”
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