Burbank school to get needed playground upgrade

One of Burbank Unified’s oldest schools will be the first to receive an upgrade using funds from the $110-million Measure S bond that voters approved in March.

At Washington Elementary, school officials plan to add new fencing along Winona Avenue and Lincoln Street. Located on the same corner, a playground used by a child care center at the school will get new synthetic turf and equipment.

The roughly $400,000 project will make the campus much more pleasing to the eye, according to Dave Kemp, school board president.

“I’m so glad that this is a project moving forward because that is probably our worst looking corner in the entire district,” he said at a recent board meeting.

Craig Bell, the district’s director of school facilities, concurred.

“That’s really why we picked this for the initial project for the bond,” he said, adding that the new turf and play equipment will “revolutionize where we are headed with our playgrounds.”

New play structures will replace sandboxes and old metal play equipment typically too hot to touch on sunny days — something that won’t happen with the new equipment, Bell said.

The asphalt on the school’s parking lot will also be replaced.

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.