Waltham parents find unity on school playground

A year ago, the William F. Stanley Elementary School was embroiled in controversy between Anglo and Spanish-speaking parents over its principal at the time, Waltham's first Hispanic administrator.

Today, the parents are finding common ground in, of all places, a playground.

They have joined forces to design and raise money for a state-of-the-art recreation area that both disabled and able-bodied children can enjoy. Due to be finished this summer, it will have the largest variety of wheelchair-accessible play equipment in the city.

"It was a unifying project and seemed like it would be healing thing for the community. We had a very diverse group of parents that came together on the committee," said Reggi Richard, a founder of the Stanley School Playground Committee.

The project arose in the wake of the suspension and later resignation of Pilar Shepard-Cabrera as principal last spring.

Richard has since moved to North Carolina, but others are finishing the task with gusto. The 14-member committee has drummed up nearly $125,000 to construct the playground in the South Street school's front yard.

Maria Pimentel, a Latina parent whose daughter was part of last year's fifth-grade class, calls the collaboration among parents "wonderful," particularly in light of last year's controversy.

"We left that behind and tried to work together, like a team, and do the best for the children at the school," said Pimentel.

With 480 students, the four-year-old Stanley is Waltham's largest elementary school. But its only two playgrounds are for preschoolers and kindergartners, and are so small that the students have to use them in shifts. Older students are left to fend for themselves on the lawn.

The new playground, dubbed Funway Park, will accommodate up to 80 children from first to fifth grade at one time, and will cover most of the grassy yard.

The school's new principal, Marcia Pertuz, said she hopes the playground attracts children with disabilities from across the city.

Stanley students can't wait for Funway Park to take shape, she said.

"I don't know if they actually believe it," said Pertuz.

"They know it's going to come, and they know the excitement around it, but I think they're really going to be excited when they can see it, when we start to break ground."

The playground will consist of a half-dozen six-sided platforms connected by ramps and bridges. Students voted on many of its 32 pieces of equipment, which range from traditional slides and pull-up bars to apparatus shaped like spider webs, chimneys, and waves.

Committee member Susan McKinney recalled how enthusiastic -- and nervous -- she felt when she made her pitch before the Waltham Handicapped Services Commission, which had never before been asked to help fund a project tailored for children.

"I was on tenterhooks, showing the design and walking them through," she said. "And I heard Jerry LeBlanc out of the corner of my ear... say, 'Wow this is great!' "

LeBlanc, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as an adult and now uses a wheelchair, helped spur his fellow commission members to approve $50,000 in grants -- the playground's biggest contribution.

"Hopefully it will tell the children who are not disabled that everybody can be equal," he said.

The playground committee hopes to raise $50,000 more so the entire playground can have a rubber-based surface that is forgiving on falls and easy on children who have difficulty moving around.

Funway Park's Buy-a-Brick fund-raising program runs through Feb. 15. Contact Lisa Wise at 781-209-1629, Susan McKinney at 781-642-7893, or visit stanleyschool.org/funwaypark.