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St. Agnes School builds COVID-friendly playground

St. Agnes School first-grade student Knox Lustberg works on stump seats for the new outdoor classroom. (Provided photo)

LAKE PLACID — Adapting to COVID-19 safety protocols last year taught St. Agnes School staff many lessons, and some of those lessons led to a new playground for students in the Catholic school’s pre-k to third-grade classes.

“We weren’t able to share playground equipment at the beginning of last year, so we created some temporary playground spaces,” St. Agnes School Principal Catherine Bemis said Wednesday, Sept. 1.

Staff found that children were more engaged at play when they had multiple spaces to use, and there were fewer classroom management challenges when the density on the playground was reduced and there weren’t as many kids in the same space.

“That’s actually what led to the entire playground redesign and to creating the Beach & Build Playscape,” Bemis said.

This past summer, St. Agnes staff worked with Twin Hill Farms, of Vermontville, to remove the old playground equipment, excavate and regrade the existing space for the Beach & Build Playscape. It now has a new sledding hill, grass cover and builder toys. The old blacktop is being converted to an activity space designed to ignite creativity, and it will be used as an outdoor mud kitchen, art, science and exploration center.

“The Beach playground was fenced and dug down 3 feet to be refilled with sand so that students will be able to enjoy digging and playing in the space as if they were spending a day at the beach!” Bemis wrote in an email.

The plan is to eventually purchase a larger piece of playground equipment to complete the new playscape.

As far as COVID-19 protocols, St. Agnes plans to follow U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York State Education Department guidelines for navigating the pandemic and keeping students safe. That includes a state directive to require masks for students, staff and visitors inside the school, no matter their vaccination status.

The school is adding HEPA filtration units to all of the classrooms, funded by a donation from the Mirror Lake Inn charitable fund through the Adirondack Foundation.

The school is also partnering with the Essex County Health Department to provide on-site testing for students.

While COVID safety measure are necessary, they sometimes get in the way of education. Bemis hopes St. Agnes School can get to a new strategy as the academic year progresses.

“I would like very much for us to get to a place where it was education and learning environment first and COVID took a back seat instead of having COVID in front of every decision that we made,” Bemis said. “And that’s really our plan going into this year — to continue to respect COVID and to continue with safe practices but to make sure that the focus no longer lies solely with COVID — that we are able to focus on the students and the educational quality and the learning experience fully.”

St. Agnes School welcomes two new pre-school teachers: Mary Smith, a former St. Agnes School second- and third-grade teacher; and Emma Orlic, a recent graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

St. Agnes School will welcome 52 students in kindergarten through grade 3, plus those in pre-k, on the first day of classes on Tuesday.

ENROLLMENT

St. Agnes School (Catholic, Lake Placid, K-3)

2021-22: 52

2020-21: 48

2019-20: 43

2018-19: 46

2017-18: 42

2016-17: 45

2015-16: 42

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