By Clare Beezhold
News Editor
Meadows Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Association worked to bring their blacktop to life with bright colors through a painting project on Sept. 29 with the help of parents and volunteers.
According to Meadows PTA Co-President Patricia Doumeng, the school recently implemented Peaceful Playgrounds at Meadows. The organization teaches many ways to reduce conflicts on the playground, and bringing color to the asphalt is one of them.
“We are hoping the students find many different games to play and keep the playground problem free,” Doumeng said. “The pop of color has brought smiles to our students’ faces. The students are having fun creating new games in the different areas we painted.”
Doumeng organized 15 parents and Meadows Principal Michelle Krzmarzick to complete the project. To accomplish the painting as soon as possible, all planning was done within 10 days prior to the painting. Many of the volunteers were there for more than 10 hours.
“We are so grateful to all the Meadows parents and volunteers who transformed our playground into a colorful place to play,” Meadows PTA Co-President Kathleen Paralusz said. “Our students love it.”
The volunteers took existing templates or lines and added color and added new templates including hopscotch, bean bag toss and jump dots. Current Mira Costa juniors Harper Sussin, Emma Paulsson and Adi Stein were involved in recoloring the United States map on the lower blacktop.
“I had an amazing time painting because even though I didn’t go to Meadows, I still got to make the black top brighter and more neat for the students there now,” Stein said. “I would hope that the kids at Meadows appreciate the colorful area that they get to play on and enjoy the new games we painted onto the concrete.”
The school looked to Pennekamp’s playground for inspiration as to what they wanted as a final product. A few teachers and Krzmarzick attended a professional development program through Peaceful Programs last year. They agreed that this project tied in perfectly with Meadows’ Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports approach and made perfect sense to bring it to life on our playgrounds, Krzmarzick said.
“Our goal is to have more students playing and not waiting for turns on games that already have too many players,” Krzmarzick said. “We want the colors to spark more joy in our students and for them to know that we care enough to make their recesses more fun.”
The PTA will be painting the final portions of the playground on the upper part of the school soon and welcomes any volunteers.
“It’s a wonderful addition to our school and reflects the joy that our community shares in providing our students with new and innovative ways to learn, play and have fun,” Paralusz said.
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