The community playground at Wilson Elementary School in north Medford is set to receive new features after the school received a $10,000 grant from the Portland Trail Blazers Foundation to add all-abilities equipment.

Over the summer, workers will install a horseshoe-shaped section with adaptive playground pieces for students with disabilities, and potentially wrap up construction before the 2024-25 academic year.

“Our facilities team is actually going to make a horseshoe of softfall (rubber flooring), which essentially is going to create opportunities for us to create anywhere from three to eight adaptive playground equipment ideas,” said Brent McConaghy, Wilson Elementary principal. “There’s going to be different attachments related to it that students can walk or crawl up into and utilize.” 

Among the new features to be added are plastic, interactive musical equipment and a large toy Jeep for visitors to play in, said Michele Cleveland, director of special education for the Medford School District and grant writer for the playground project.

A key focus of administrators and organizers is to build out equipment that isn’t segregated to one section of the 7,459-square-foot playground, but to fashion new things to play with that are integrated within the existing structure and usable by children of all abilities.

“The really important part of bringing in equipment that all students can access is truly making it something that all students want to access and do together,” McConaghy said.

“It’s going to be interactive and allow kids to interact with each other through different add-ons to it, and that’s where the first part of our money is going to be going, is buying that sensory equipment,” he added.

The playground is also utilized outside of school hours by families that live around Wilson Elementary. Organizers intend to add the new equipment not only for the students, but for kids in Medford and across Southern Oregon.

“The community aspect was one of the biggest pieces we hit when writing the grant,” Cleveland said. “It’s going to support a wider range of people than just the student population.”

The Medford School District has the goal of raising $26,000 to $40,000 through grants and community partners to fully add new equipment and features to the horseshoe-shaped section and around the playground over the next 18 months, according to Cleveland.

“If we do that, it’s going to be one of the better playgrounds in Southern Oregon that’s going to have a significant amount of ADA playground equipment that probably won’t be seen in many parts,” McConaghy said.

The school district has purchased the necessary supplies for the playground project and expects them to arrive in June or July.

“We can pay for it, we can have the best plan ready for it, but we need to wait for the materials to come in and do it,” McConaghy said.