LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools is installing new playgrounds at 20 schools in the district. District officials say the project costs around $2 million and targets schools mostly in south and west Louisville.

So far, six playgrounds, costing around $100,000 each, have been completed, including at Jacob Elementary.

Karen Waggoner, the school principal, says she is extremely grateful to have been one school selected. Previously, her students had only a bare-bones area for recess play, that changed earlier this month.

For years this has been the only playground Jacob Elementary students knew, now it’s been replaced with brand new equipment (Spectrum News 1/Mason Brighton)

“This is all that we had on property,” Waggoner said as she points to the old play area. “It’s not considered a playground, but it’s all the kids thought that we had as a playground.”

The new playground satisfies any young kid’s needs. Slides, musical instruments, merry-go-round, monkey bars, and even a climbing wall. They’ve now got it all.

“Over the summer break and stuff, when we came back we seen them building, a whole bunch of new stuff and then once we were able to play, I’m pretty sure all the classes wanted to play on the playground as soon as it got built,” fifth-grader Serenity said.

“I like the seesaw. It’s really fun. And the slides and the spinning thing,” Serenity’s classmate Keyra added.

The JCPS schools receiving an Extreme Makeover: Playground Edition are also ones with the most student needs. Dubbed accelerated improvement schools — its students often underperform on certain metrics. 

“So we are schools that oftentimes have low socioeconomic, a lot of students from free and reduced lunch homes or students that struggle to perform at proficiency on our state accountability assessments,” Waggoner explained.

Jacob Elementary fifth-grader Serenity hangs from a section of the school’s newly-finished playground (Spectrum News 1/Mason Brighton)

Initiatives like this help ensure students have the best opportunity to succeed every day at school. Providing a healthy and safe place to socialize, exercise and just be a kid.

“We ask a lot of them as far as sitting in class and learning, and they just need an opportunity to run and play and breathe some fresh air. And this playground does a lot to provide that,” Jacob Elementary technology teacher Matt Spitler said.

Waggoner adds unlike other schools in the district, Jacob has no parent teacher association to fundraise for new playground equipment.

Construction is expected to be completed by March 2024.