Musical instruments, giant swings and shade: Fort Worth is upgrading school playgrounds.

Dozens of volunteers, teachers and former students braved triple-digit heat this week to install an upgraded playground at Dillow Elementary School, the latest equipment designed by students as part of a playspace equity initiative in Fort Worth.

The move comes weeks after Mayor Mattie Parker officially joined five other cities in a “Park Equity Accelerator” supported by the Trust for Public Land in which city officials will focus on “converting non-traditional spaces and developer owned lands into parks.”

The mayor previously discussed collaborating with schools to formally operate school playgrounds as parks after school, a practice used by cities across the state including Dallas.

Marty Taylor, a former Dillow Elementary student, helped spread wood chips around the equipment as another volunteer transported it with a wheelbarrow.

“It has been very exciting, because when you’re small you don’t think about things like this,” Taylor said. “Now that I am older … I can give back so that kids can be happy like I was playing on the playground.”

Dillow is one of three schools selected for upgrades by the Fort Worth Independent School District after cataloging the number of play structures, the quality and disrepair of the structures and other factors such as academic success. Turner and Western Hills elementary schools also recently received new equipment.

More upgrades are expected in the coming months and years to achieve equal access to high-quality play spaces across the entire district, officials say.

Students chose unique additions to traditional playgrounds

The upgrades come with unique additions, inspired in part by Dream Park, a city park off the Trinity River designed for kids. A huge swing was a must-have for children at W.J. Turner Elementary School, who got to design their own playground as part of a collaboration with the national nonprofit Kaboom.

A putting green for a First Tee program is also in the works at that school, according to Chris Reeves, a project development specialist at Fort Worth ISD who has been deeply involved in the equity project.

Musical instruments, including drums and a xylophone, were also incorporated into the design, all intended to enhance student learning.

“The sensory wall will give several students at once something to play with, and it will encourage them to interact with each other,” Reeves said. “Also, it is meant to be inclusive for students with mobility issues. The Dillow playground is meant for students in pre-K through first grade, so the tactile hands-on learning is developmentally appropriate. There is something for everyone.”

Students “earned” the playgrounds they helped design by reading — a challenge that will be expanded as the district continues to collaborate with Kaboom for future projects.

Pre-K Garden will bring learning, nutrition to Fort Worth school

With the new playgrounds, a growing movement to incorporate fresh gardens into play spaces to help students learn about nutrition and the life cycle is also taking hold.

Anne Santana, a garden educator at North Hi Mount Elementary, was on-hand at the build recently, where a collection of raised gardens for each class as well as one for the whole school are being installed.

The Hi Mount Garden is used for a variety of educational purposes.

“Every three weeks we do a 45-minute lesson with students … and then other days when they have time they come out and do all the skills you need to learn, like how to weed,” Santana said. “We integrate math, science, engineering and mathematics.”

At Dillow, Santana said, the garden will be focused on the pre-K program, which will be staffed by almost all new teachers in the coming year.

Santana said the collaboration could be a model for future Kaboom builds.

Volunteers helped build three new playgrounds across Fort Worth

Gerald Marcel, who is retired, has helped build all three playgrounds that have been constructed in recent months.

“I am a Fort Worth ISD volunteer doing different things at different schools,” he said. “I think that the kids in the neighborhood are going to make good use of the playground, whether during school before school or after school. It gives them an outlet for a lot of exercise.”

Marcel, who said he is a “hands-on” volunteer, was one of about two dozen volunteers breaking ground on the project Tuesday.

Jackie Serban, an executive assistant for Fidelity Investments, helped lead a team of volunteers from the Fidelity Cares program to help install the equipment.

“A lot of us have never really helped with this type of project before,” she said. “So I’m getting a lot of positive comments from the leadership team, that they want to participate in more events like this.”

“Even the smallest change for these kids is a huge deal,” she added.

For teachers at the school, like Denise Zwald, an art teacher, the new equipment has added significance.

By the end of last year a broken slide and other unsafe equipment caused the playground to be closed for students.

“The playground that was here before was just for smaller children and there really was a limited amount of things they can do,” Zwald said. “There really wasn’t enough space for all the children that came out to the playground.”

Zwald pointed out a color wheel, swings and a gardening area that are featured on the new playground.

Latonya Pegues, another Fort Worth teacher at Atwood McDonald, was there with her sorority, the Beta Mu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

“I think that regardless of where you live or where you are from, you should have the same education. Same thing with play space,” she said. “It is very important for this play space to be equal and attractive. If it’s one that’s torn apart and not as attractive, they may not be as interested in it.”

District initiative focuses on equity across all campuses

That has been a focus of administrators from the outset of the project.

Mirgitt Crespo, a senior officer of grants and development for the Fort Worth school district, said providing underserved communities a chance to participate, and ownership over their neighborhood instills pride that has the ability to lift up the whole area.

“In order for you to do equity, you had to distribute and really give the people the dignity of having the same things as beautiful as other areas of town,” she said. “And they will rise up for that because we have seen how the community cares. They call if something is being destroyed, because they care.”

Through the initiative, the district hopes to engage with multiple campuses each year, depending on the donations and outside funding by partners that reach out to the grants department.

“I think that is part of the appeal of the equity piece, is that people forget that beautification and having good infrastructure and good streets and sidewalks, and clean streets makes you feel like part of the community,” Crespo said. “And when you are proud of something, you don’t destroy it, you take care of it.”