Capital Prep Magnet School at 1304 Main St., founded by the “most trusted educator in America,” Steve Perry (not the lead singer of Journey), was originally designed to be a grade 6 – 12 school so when renovations were done to the building in 2011, a playground was not included; there is a liquor store and smoke shop directly across the street however, perhaps a reminder for students of where they will be spending their time if they do not do well in school (Capital Prep students successfully fought to block plans for a grocery store next door to the school in 2018 – Hartford Courant, Nov. 25, 2018, P. A1).

Soon, the student population at Capital Prep was expanded to include PK-Grade 5 students.  According to Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, a playground at Capital Prep had “always been a priority,” however, despite spending $100,000 in 2018 on carpet and interior doors at Capital Prep, and despite $155 million in COVID money which began flowing into Hartford three years ago, that priority “was unmatched by our financial resources.”  Apparently until now.

At the Board of Education’s October 9th Finance Committee meeting, notice was given to the BOE that the district will be hiring the Texas based company, Kompan, Inc., to build a playground at Capital Prep at the cost of $181,000, a cost we’re told by HPS Executive Director of School Leadership Sandra Inga (with a background in the semiconductor industry, including Texas Instruments in Texas) was “considerably” lower than a competing “bid” of $199,000.

According to the Superintendent and Ms. Inga’s presentation to the BOE, a playground will give students “a planned space to create new knowledge, build physical fitness skills, and develop healthy relationships through engaging social and emotional interactions.”  Perhaps this will help to build that student-to-school connection as well, since only 47% of Capital Prep students surveyed in the Superintendent’s little culture and climate survey for the spring of 2023 said that they “feel connected” to their school.  HPS also states that the playground may act as a magnet in the recruiting of students to Capital Prep (fresh off their purported success at recruiting teachers to HPS, the marketing gurus at Adams & Knight will now be assisting in the recruitment of students to HPS).

The folks leading the city of Mount Dora, Florida may have also been trying to save less than 20k when they brought in Kompan to build their playground in 2019.  Hours after the project was completed, city officials shut down the playground due to “multiple complaints of alleged injuries sustained” as the result of poor equipment design.

The building of school playgrounds is not something to be toyed with.  The Nationwide Children’s Hospital states that nearly a quarter of a million students under the age of 18 are hurt on school playgrounds each year.  Due to the number of injuries, supervision, maintenance, and liability issues arise whenever a school playground is installed.  Does HPS have these issues covered?  I’m not saying they don’t, it’s just that they haven’t.  What??!!