by stacey palevsky
staff writer
The playground chatter blared as though coming out of loudspeakers.
But that’s what happens when a group of students first set foot on their new playground. At Oakland Hebrew Day School, they run, they roll and they scream with joy.
On Oct. 26, OHDS celebrated the completion of the school’s “upper campus” — literally, a sprawling playground on a hill next to the school. About 200 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The previous playground was a stretch of asphalt slightly longer and narrower than a regulation basketball court. Kids could play catch or basketball, twirl hula-hoops or run around — if there was room, said Mark Shinar, director of Oakland Hebrew Day School.
The playground “was adequate for 100 students, tight for 125 and ridiculously crowded with 150,” Shinar said. “A lot of kids wouldn’t even go out for recess because it was just too tight.”
Over the last four years, OHDS has grown from 100 to 175 students, which put a squeeze on the old playground. So one year ago, parents and the board began to raise money to expand and improve the outside space.
The expanded playground more than doubles the school’s outdoor area. It includes a regulation-size high school basketball court, so the basketball team will no longer have to rent space elsewhere to practice; an athletic field made of sustainable artificial grass; a shaded picnic area; and a mix of old redwood trees and new olive and ginkgo saplings. On a clear day, students can see the San Francisco Bay from their hilltop playground.
Students raved. Ariel Cohen, 10, called it “the best thing ever.” Her friend Rosie Schwartz, 10, says that the small, artificial hills she can somersault down are her favorite part. And Sivan Brodo-Abo, 10, said she loves the new picnic tables where she and her friends can eat lunch.
“Anyone who came to see our school and saw all those kids on the small blacktop realized [a new playground] wasn’t a luxury, but a necessity,” said Leslie Edelman, president of the school board and parent of four OHDS students (and one graduate).
The project cost $1.5 million, including constructing the playground, demolishing the office buildings previously on the space and retiring the loan on the land. The school still needs to raise the last $300,000.
“We see this as not just a playground but as part of our curriculum,” Edelman said. “We want to educate the whole child, and the whole child is not just in a classroom.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California