A Public
Finance & Facilities Standing Committee meeting was held at the North
Vancouver School District office. The NVSD Finance & Facilities Department
shared some covered area considerations, and gathered input from meeting
attendees as to potential covered area site locations for Highlands. Some key
suggestions that we expressed regarding the location of covered play areas
include the following:
Locating
close to the school is ideal so that students don’t get soaked walking to and
from the covered area. And we feel that it is more likely to be used if closer
to the school.
Locating
against (or nearly touching) school walls is ideal as it allows for more dry space
(blocking directional rain/wind) and it allows for ball games against the wall,
or simply leaning against the wall if desired. If considering a free standing
covered area, away from the building walls, perhaps partial walls or slatted
walls (to allow visibility) could be added on one or two sides of the
structure(s) to help block the wind/rain.
Level,
concrete surface would be ideal, with perhaps “Four Square” and/or “Hopscotch”
painted on.
At
the meeting, it was agreed that of the two options that will be voted upon on
Nov. 27th, one option could include two smaller areas as opposed to
one larger area. More than one covered area would be ideal as it would serve
more students (as students tend to congregate with others in their age group).
The
Facilities & Planning Department, NVSD, mentioned that a steel structure is
most likely – we think that would fit in nicely with the look of the school.
Really, a simple metal structure would do the job. Polygon estimates were
approximately $40,000 (materials & freight), +/- depending upon size, (plus
construction costs) for something like this example:
