PTO Member, President Question Stony Brook Playground Delays

BREWSTER – The new Stony Brook Elementary School playground has been a true community effort, built on camaraderie and collaboration. However, with recent construction delays pushing back the completion date, the Brewster PTO is now questioning where the town’s priorities lie. 

It was announced earlier this month that weather conditions and equipment delays have suspended progress on the new playground, located beside the Brewster Whitecaps’ field at Stony Brook Elementary. After missing the original early November completion date, the playground is now tentatively expected to open on May 2 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

“Unfortunately, the project has been significantly delayed due to specific safety equipment needed for the playground to be used during the Whitecaps season,” Meghan Taylor, a member of the Brewster PTO, wrote in an email. She was referring to custom metal poles needed to hold up netting to protect the playground from foul balls during baseball season.

While that is true, Katie Jacobus, chair of the Brewster School Committee, said that weather-related issues were the cause of much of the delays. 

As part of the approved design, a poured-in-place surface is to be installed for accessibility purposes. Jacobus said to install this surface, specialized contractors said they would need five dry, 40-degree days in a row because of the effect temperatures have on the material. 

Construction on the project began on Sept. 22, with the surface installation scheduled for November. Jacobus said November was a rather cold and rainy month, so contractors were not able to complete the installation. 

Jacobus said there were some delays in getting the manufactured metal poles that hold up the netting during Whitecaps games. She said the custom pieces should arrive by early January. 

Members of the PTO, including Taylor and President Christie Peterson, argue that starting the project earlier in the summer would have been more reasonable to ensure the students had access to it during the school year. As an active construction site, the area around the playground is currently fenced off and unusable by students. 

Peterson said officials should prioritize opening the playground for students, and if that delays installation of the safety features for the summer visitors, close it down during the games.

“It’s simple,” said Peterson. “An elementary school should have a playground that’s usable all day for kids and we’re prioritizing an eight-week baseball team before our kids.”

“I understand some disappointment,” said Jacobus. “And yet it’s really an exciting opportunity that we would hate to risk doing it in a way where it’s not the best result by going against the weather and not doing it top level.”

Taylor said Whitecaps officials requested that construction start after their season last summer. Jacobus said she is not aware of any request from the Whitecaps about the timeline and that construction had to begin in the fall due to the procurement process, but noted that many of the organizations involved did not want to interfere with the baseball season.

“We (the school committee, town and Nauset Youth Alliance) had no intentions to begin this project during the Whitecaps season, when there is active community use of the fields and playground,” she said. “That would have been entirely unsafe and disruptive.”

The project, which was originally proposed and funded by the Nauset Youth Alliance, was able to move forward only after town meeting approval in May. There are three funding sources for the work: $550,000 of CPC funding (approved by town meeting), $630,000 from the Nauset Youth Alliance and $25,000 from the Whitecaps. 

Jacobus said the playground committee discussed a soft opening before the poles and poured-in-place surface were installed, but the cost to lay woodchips around the equipment for safety and then remove them was around $25,000, which didn’t seem reasonable after factoring in vacation and weather days within the 10-week span. 

In a phone interview two weeks ago, Peterson said members of the PTO and a number of parents donated money and purchased toys for the students to play with during recess while the playground is closed. With the new completion date, students will have less than a month to use the equipment before school ends. 

According to Jacobus, Principal Carolan Kasper has reported fun and creative play during recess. 

“It does not sound like school staff are aware of any kids complaining,” she said. In fact, she said a silver lining of the situation is the use of imaginative play that some parent chaperones are reporting. 

Peterson also said she is worried about what opening the playground right before the summer months will do. 

“All of a sudden, it’s going to be ready for all these tourists to use during baseball season, and unsupervised,” she said. “That’s what really frustrates me — it’s [a] brand new, sparkling playground that is going to be ready just in time for the Whitecaps fans.” 

The poured-in-place surface installation is likely to be scheduled for sometime in April — a date that was proposed by the contractors due to the weather conditions and their schedules.