PK-3 principal Jon Wright gave a presentation and showed blueprints of the new playground.

Wright said the current playground is 30 years old, lacks inclusiveness, includes broken and racked equipment, layers of wood chips which don’t provide a good base for wheelchair access, and lacks proper lighting, proper cameras for supervision, and proper drainage.

The new playground, estimated to cover about 7,500 square feet, would include ramps, a wheelchair-accessible ‘Sway Fun’ glider, a wheelchair-accessible ‘We-go-Round,’ musical elements that can be utilized, and canopies to provide shade.

According to the Plainview News, about 800 youngsters, plus those from the community, use the playground multiple times every school day.

The estimated cost of the ‘PEM Playground of Paws-Ibilities’ is $720,000. Additional work, to ‑ fix drainage problems and add light poles and fencing for security, would push the cost to around $1 million.

About 95 percent of the cost must be raised by fund-raising - and, Wright said, 100 percent of donations will go toward the new playground. He hopes work can begin after a year of fundraising, in June of 2026, and be complete by that fall.

The Lions Club has adjusted the location of its adaptive playground project, originally planned for Wedgewood Park, to the PreK-3 Elementary School site.

Donations to the PK-3 school can be made by scanning QR codes on the PEM PreK-3 website, and the Plainview-Elgin-Millville Community Schools website (see ‘PEM Playground of Paws-Ibilities’).