McBride's school/park plan sets stage for future

The Springfield/Greene County Park Board has teamed up with city, county and school officials to better use public facilities at elementary schools, providing activities and programs for children and adults.

"We actually began working on the concept in the 1970s" said Park Board Director, Dan Kinney. Today, the timing is right to move ahead with the school/park project, which has gotten its start at McBride Elementary School, he added.

The city has been divided into zones, and schools have been selected as the "hubs" in particular zones based on their accessibility and the availability of adjacent land to be developed into parks. The park at McBride Elementary will serve not only residents in the school's immediate area, but those located in the nearby Jeffries and Gray school districts.

"We're very excited about the opportunity to share in this project," said Public School Superintendent Jack Ernst.

These facilities provide a nice setting for school and public activities, and they benefit both the schools and the community, he said.

Residents in the McBride area were surveyed prior to the installation of the park facility at the site, and several plans were considered before the final plan was initiated, according to Steve Ownby, landscape architect on the project. Changes were made to meet some of the requests, he said.

Construction on the park site at McBride began last fall. After completing the design, Ownby helped oversee the construction of the park and was available to answer questions and make minor adjustments in the plans where needed.

The city has designated $600,000 for land acquisition, and money has been spent by the Parks Department to purchase property in areas where future projects are planned, according to Fred May, city director of planning.

The 20-acre site at McBride was the first to be developed; and some work has also been done on land adjacent to Truman Elementary School on the north side of Springfield.

In the inner city, the park board has purchased 11 homes north of McGregor Elementary School to begin a park project connected to that school, according to Kinney.

McGregor is scheduled for a new building, pending passage of the proposed school bond issue in the April 4 election.

"Hopefully the McGregor project will become a model for future projects," said Ken Neale, assistant superintendent for elementary education.

Future plans include an additional 18 to 20 hub sites where programs will be offered to residents in all parts of Springfield, Kinney said. The pace and extent of the projects will depend largely on available funding, he added.

The concept of the school/park project was set forth in the Vision 20/20 process, Neale said.

The collaboration of the city, county and schools has allowed the entities involved to provide services that they couldn't provide by themselves, he added.

Neale defined the concept as "a unique partnership of school, park, playground and other recreational facilities formed into a single unit for education, recreation and other related social and community activities, which benefits the surrounding community."

Several states already have similar projects in place, according to Kinney. Before starting the McBride project, a group of park board employees and educators visited park/school sites in Milwaukee, Wis.

What they learned from established sites, coupled with the surveys to determine what people want in a local hub area, has helped officials put together a plan for the hubs now in progress, according to Sandra Pratt, park board community recreation director.

The park board provides quality, low-cost adult classes on anything of interest, ranging from tennis to computer training and finance.

There are also a number of after-school programs for children, including parent's night out, designed to give parents a needed break while the children are entertained, Pratt said.

There is an added benefit to these programs because they bring together children from neighboring elementary schools who will be attending middle school together in the near future. This helps them adjust to the transition when the time comes, Pratt said.

Several activities, such as craft workshops, tiny tots tumbling, cartooning and a mad science class have been held at McBride, and the programs have been a huge success, said McBride Principal Peggy Riggs.