Score one for overworked parents tired of their children coming home from school with muddy clothing.
A pair of Thunder Bay schools has embarked on a pilot project to start the 2016-17 school year, installing artificial turf on revamped playground areas for junior and senior kindergarten students.
The $200,000 project could be expanded to other elementary schools should it prove to be successful, said St. Martin School principal Letizia Termonti, whose new-look , fenced-in playground includes a gazebo and other new equipment.
“We’re hoping it’s going to solve some of our drainage problems that we have annually here in Thunder Bay with all the water and all the mud that accumulates.
"The new Astroturf should help with that problem,” Tremonti said.
“We’ll have very happy families whose children are going home clean and happy, having played outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather here on Thunder Bay.”
The turf also means less maintenance concerns for school custodians, who have less mud tracked through the hallways.
“You can run on this, you can snowblow this, it’s heavy duty and low maintenance absolutely,” Tremonti said.
St. Bernard School is also taking part in the project.
Sheila Chiodo, the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board’s superintendent for business, said the condition of the play area at both facilities has been a longstanding issue.
She believes this could be the perfect fix.
“There’s a lot of wear and tear on the area where the kids are playing. We had to do some fix-ups for drainage and whatnot, so we just thought it was a good fix to do it,” she said.
It certainly could be expanded in the future.
“Those are two of our bigger schools, so we have quite a few students. But it’s definitely a pilot project and if it works well, we’ll look at other schools,” Chiodo said.
