BRINNON — The Brinnon School District’s playground will see another round of upgrades to its playground, this time in the shape of a running track.
The Brinnon School District will add the running/walking track in spring, using funds from the $46,000 grant it recently received, said Superintendent Trish Beathard.
The funds came from a Healthy Kids-Healthy Schools grant through the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), which was provided $3.25 million from the state capital budget for 2019-21 to support the Healthiest Next Generation Initiative.
The funds are available for schools for either physical education/activity or nutrition.
They are awarded on a competitive application basis, and no school can receive more than $200,000, OSPI’s website said.
Beathard said the district applied for the grant in November and learned it was successful last week.
This is the second year in a row that the district earned one of these grants, as it received $73,000 last year that was put toward upgrades to the playground’s play structures, asphalt and wood-chip fill, Beathard said.
“We got another one, yes we did,” Beathard said.
The track will be about a quarter-mile loop and wrap around the circumference of the current playground and will be made of a crushed rock material. It will be five to six feet wide and be slightly raised above the current asphalt, Beathard said.
“I think it’s going to be great,” Beathard said.
The district has a walk-and-run club that students participate in during recess, running laps and having a teacher tracking their distance.
Student leaders help run the club. Each member has a badge that is scanned for each lap they do. The track will make it easier to track closer to exact distances, Beathard said.
“The kids like being in charge of it,” Beathard said. “They get it out and get it rolling every day and we have middle school leaders that take that on.
“I think this would be super good support for that program that we already have. It’s going to be a big improvement for us I think.”
The grant notification was a good point to end the calendar year on for the district.
“It’s kinda a good little Christmas present for us,” Beathard said.
Beathard expects construction to start in spring, due to the permitting process and weather.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com
