UWS Parents Push For Inclusive Playground At Local School

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Where scaffolding fell, an inclusive playground should rise, Upper West Side parents say.

Parents at the Joan of Arc Educational Complex are pushing the city to build a playground for kids of all abilities on West 93rd Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus, weeks after the construction material that swathed the school came down.

Friends of Manhattan School For Children Parents Association, a parent group of one of the three schools in the complex, is leading the fight for the new playground.

"For over 25 years Manhattan School for Children has been the gold standard for inclusive education in New York City Public School inside the school building and in the classroom," the group told Patch in a statement.

"Now, we are going to build an inclusive playground in order to bring inclusive play outside."

The inclusive playground would be designed for children with diverse abilities and disabilities to be able to play together.

Nearly 25 percent of all students at the three schools housed by the Joan of Arc Educational Complex have disabilities, according to a recent Community Board 7 presentation about the possible playground.

Plans aren't set in stone, but proposals include renovations to the current complex playground and new inclusive elements in the yard that once housed construction supplies, Gui Stampur, a member of the parents group, told Patch.

Plans would also include a ramp that would connect the two spaces, instead of the stairs that currently exist, Stampur added.

Upper West Side Council Member Gale Brewer said she supports the project and has visited the school yard multiple times during the past month.

Brewer championed Manhattan School for Children for its long history of inclusion, and the way it supports students of all abilities in the classroom.

"Students with different kinds of abilities, some kids in wheelchairs, it focuses on putting kids together in the same classrooms with support," Brewer said.

"That group of kids with different abilities should be able to play as much as every other student.”

She added to Patch that they still needed to find the funding for the project.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine has also voiced his support for the new play space.

It's not just the parents pushing for a change, the leadership of the different schools within the Upper West Side educational complex have thrown their support behind the new playground.

"An inclusive playground will bring our model of inclusivity inside the school building outside and help make the Joan of Arc Educational Complex a model of inclusively for our entire city," the principals of the three schools housed at building said in a joint statement shown during the Community Board 7 presentation.

The project is taking inspiration from the Bloomingdale Inclusive Park and Playground at West 104th Street and Amsterdam.

Shelly Fine, who is an Upper West Side Community Board 7 member and the co-director of the nonprofit that oversees the Bloomingdale playground, told Patch that the goal is for Upper West Side schools to have inclusivity both indoors and outdoors.

"Now the three schools in the Joan of Arc Educational Complex, in which with 22% of the student body are students with disabilities, are working towards the goal of inclusivity inside and outside," Fine told Patch. "In order to accomplish this goal they must provide play spaces and equipment where children of all abilities, disabilities, and cultural differences are able to play together."

The Upper West Side's Community Board 7 and the Health & Human Services Committee unanimously adopted a resolution during a Jan. 24 meeting in support of the new inclusive playground project outside of the Joan of Arc Educational Complex.

Friends of Manhattan School For Children Parents Association is also working with students, teachers and other professionals at the Upper West Side school to generate a community process in creating the new playground.

Here's a video that the Friends of Manhattan School For Children Parents Association showed during the meeting about the process.

"Our goal is to build an inclusive playground and be a beacon of light in our community and set a new standard for inclusivity in the community," Friends of Manhattan School For Children Parents Association told Patch. "Outside learning and inside learning should parallel each other and work together to build a whole child."

Anybody who wants to get involved in the effort to build an inclusive playground at Joan of Arc Educational Complex can reach out to Gui Stampur at [email protected].