MINNEAPOLIS — Sometimes it takes time to get things done just right, and that certainly has been the case with the new playground at Ella Baker Global Studies and Humanities Magnet School in Minneapolis.
Faced with the prospect of the school district installing a new play area with equipment inaccessible to some classmates, Ella Baker fourth-graders mounted a successful petition drive two years ago to block the design and then set out to create a worthy replacement.
The magnet school serves students in preschool to eighth grade and, as part of its programming, houses a citywide special education program that includes students with physical and developmental disabilities.
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The last of the major playground pieces came together in late October, and on a recent Tuesday, several student leaders — now sixth-graders — climbed onto one of the inclusive play area’s most coveted features: a saucer-like “Oodle Swing” that allows kids to sway on it together.
Together being what this has been all about.
“We’ve had kids who are deaf, and kids who have vision impairments and really poor balance, who’ve been able to go on there with their friends,” said Jessica Knutson, a physical therapist with Minneapolis Public Schools. “That’s never been able to happen before.”
While students helped drive the project for the new play area, it’s been a team effort all the way, with assists from the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association and an array of adults — from parents to school staff members.
Now, thanks to Knutson and her physical therapist colleagues, Ella Baker is a blueprint for future play in the state’s third-largest school district, part of a broader trend to ensure playgrounds are inclusive to all students. Two other Minneapolis schools now have playgrounds in the design phase: Lyndale Elementary and Sullivan STEAM School.
Study for fun
The playground had been scheduled to be replaced last summer, a year ago, as part of a rotation of school district capital improvement projects. But the original plans, Knutson said, lacked ground-level and other play options for students with physical challenges.
Liv Evans, a fourth-grader at the time, viewed the intended replacement as a “more plasticky version of our old playground — so not accessible at all,” she said. She assisted with the petition drive and, along with friend Molly Tradewell, testified at school board meetings in pursuit of a more inclusive design.
Evans also drew into the advocacy mix her mother, Sarah Cooper-Evans, a speech language pathologist with the district, who worked with a fourth-grade math teacher in 2023-24 to encourage students to draw up designs for a dream playground.
“A lot of the stuff was really outlandish,” Tradewell said.
But it was inspiring, too, added her friend Evans, who noted a side benefit to the design exercise: a break from math. She clearly is not a fan.
Minneapolis Public Schools chipped into the endeavor by funding a trip for Evans and her mother to a playground design conference in Portland, Ore., and by adding a second Oodle Swing and a new sidewalk, a project that’s now expected to total nearly $350,000.
Hamza Abdalla, 12, helped with fundraisers by selling lemonade and snacks. He is a fan of the Oodle Swing, saying that it can be thrilling: “It feels like you’re going to fall off, but you’re not — really,” he said.
The playground is open to the public.
Money left to spend
Rubber mats still must be placed over wood chips to allow wheelchair access to the swings and a merry-go-round that sits low to the ground with back supports.
Student leaders also will be working with their peers to determine how to spend the $14,500 raised for the project through the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association, said Carina Aleckson, who serves as part-time inclusive playground project coordinator.
A second basketball hoop could be added, she said, and/or a mural or items to play with indoors when it is too cold to be outside. Aleckson also is excited to see what will come of the design principles laid out by the physical therapists for use districtwide.
“Now, what constitutes an accessible playground doesn’t have to be advocated one by one by one,” she said. “All students can play — no matter which school they’re at.”
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