Participants hailed last week’s groundbreaking for a state-of-the-art pre-K playground on the campus of Charleston Elementary School as an important new tool for student learning and exercise.
“I believe that this playground is going to transform the way that teachers think about outdoor learning time,” said Leigh Sargent, executive director of the Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance (TELA), which is using donated funds to have the new facility constructed adjacent to its classrooms at CES.
“I look forward to seeing the growth and the social and emotional outcomes that this playground experience is going to bring,” she added.
Sargent told about 40 people on hand for the sit-down program under a large white tent at the playground site that the project has been on the drawing board since 2019 but had to be placed on hold due to the pandemic.
Dr. George Gilreath, interim superintendent of the East Tallahatchie School District, was one of a half-dozen speakers, and he touted the potential benefits of the playground, which is expected to be completed sometime this fall.
“Our youngest students will now have a state-of-the-art facility to play, grow and learn,” he said. “I think everybody knows physical fitness is such a huge part of learning. Kids who aren’t fit do not do as well in school as those that are. This is a very good start.”
Bridney Jones, CES principal, said she is “super excited” to have the partnership with TELA and the support of stakeholders. “Without you and your support, it would be impossible ... So again, just thank you to the supporters of our TELA organization. Thank you for your generous donations, the time you spend with our staff, our students, what you do within the school grounds and outside.”
Dr. Jill Dent, executive director of the Office of Early Childhood at the Mississippi Department of Education, said she is “so proud” that the TELA collaborative is thinking about physical education and the role it plays in the overall development of youngsters, including their cognitive growth.
“The activity that they do outside is so important and so vital to helping them learn, and especially with the design that they’ve come up with, with activities ... that will help their brains grow just as much as their muscles,” Dent said. “I’m super excited about this.”
In brief remarks, Bryant Watson, president of the ETSD Board of Trustees, called the planned playground a “great, great thing.”
Businessman Ike Sayle, introduced by Sargent as one of TELA’s “biggest champions,” said Sayle Oil Co. is “proud to be a part” of the project, noting that because youth do not get enough physical activity, the playground will be a “real plus.”
Alan Mumbower, project manager with Struthers Recreation, which will be preparing the site and erecting the equipment, lauded TELA and ETSD, saying, “I think it’s a wonderful thing you guys are doing here for the kids.”
Mumbower explained that the new playground equipment — colorful artist renderings are attached — features a research-based design “with all the physical activity principles and also the learning and imaginative play ... so that children of all abilities and all age ranges can enjoy it for years to come.”
Sargent said the Charleston Magnolia Garden Club is partnering with the project and will utilize eight large planter boxes for vegetables and other plants to help teach children “about planting and about what that looks like all seasons when they’re here.”
Garden club spokesperson Martha Joe Venable said she and other club members “look forward to working with the children.”
TELA is an early learning collaborative for pre-K students, one of 37 around the state that are overseen by MDE.
This year, TELA celebrates 10 years of operations as one of the first state-funded early learning collaboratives.
According to information on the Mississippi First website, "Individuals or corporations who contribute to support the local matching fund of an approved early learning collaborative (ELCs) may be eligible to receive a 1:1 state tax credit for the donated amount of up to $1 million. The Mississippi Department of Revenue can approve 1:1 tax credits up to the amount the legislature appropriates to the Early Learning Collaborative Act each year."
