PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Recess is much different now at one School District of Philadelphia elementary school in South Philly.
Second-graders at Childs Elementary at South 16th and Wharton streets played outside on a warm Friday. Not on a street-level playground, but on the school's new rooftop play area, four stories up from the street. Dignitaries held a ribbon-cutting ceremony there Friday.
It's the fruit of years of fundraising and work pushing for support from lawmakers, by a local group called NICE — Neighbors Investing in Childs Elementary.
"Foam covered with AstroTurf and the foam is shaped into these hills, and there's a tunnel over there and a slide coming off the hill,” said former NICE President Diana Liefer as she watched students at play.
"It's just like a huge burst of energy. They're jumping from hill to hill. They're climbing through the tunnels. They're going down the slide."
Philadelphia Board of Education Vice President Mallory Fix-Lopez is a member of NICE. She says it's great that students here have a new playground, but she says many schools don't have the benefit of local groups supporting them.
"You want the schools to have this, and then they can start to have this community support and work with elected officials to be able to have these resources,” said Fix-Lopez. “At the same time, it has the potential to perpetuate inequities when there are schools that don't have them."
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Fix-Lopez says of the district's 217 schools, 60 don't have playgrounds.
She says it's up to the school board to see that schools that don't have active parent groups can also have nice things.
"I think it is absolutely our responsibility … to make sure there are mechanisms in place so that schools that don't have that ability to have [a home and school association] or a ‘Friends of’ group do not miss out on opportunities like this,” she said.