By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

Should responsibility for purchasing and maintaining school playground equipment be assumed by the Fayette County Board of Education?

Should the board also assume liability for injuries incurred on school playgrounds?

Those were the questions put before the board Monday night by Virgil and Carolyn Fludd, parents of children attending North Fayette Elementary School. Concerned about the safety of aging play structures at their school and others in the district, the Fludds engaged Harold Vernon, a consultant from Starling Recreation Products, to assess the playground at North Fayette. He cited 17 safety code violations in the 18-year old equipment.

“I was horrified,” Carolyn Fludd said upon receiving Vernon's report. She illustrated the consultant's findings with pictures of cracks, open `S' rings and sharp edges, close grouping of the equipment and one of the “most serious liabilities,” rubber tires buried halfway in the ground.

Attempting to soften children's falls, Fludd said the Parent Teachers Association spent about $3,000 on mulch to substantially increase the “fall zone surfacing” from the initial three inches to the recommended six to 12 inches. Rain pouring from a broken drain pipe washed most of it away, she said.

“We can't catch up; it goes on year after year,” Fludd said, adding that it's difficult for a parent group that changes officers every year to handle the escalating needs of school play facilities. The Fludds asked the board to “develop a policy that takes responsibility away from the parents,” and create a “single purchasing arm to buy equipment for all the schools.”

They also said inequities exist among the schools' play facilities. Peeples Elementary was funded at the time of construction for a $26,000 playground, while other schools like Braelinn Elementary have sought funding from the Peachtree City Council, said the Fludds. North Fayette and other older, established schools are dealing with old equipment.

The Fludds estimated a cost of about $25,000 to $30,000 for a new playground. “Play is one of the most complete educational processes of the mind,” Virgil Fludd said. He equated elementary school playgrounds to middle and high school playing fields. “Play is essential to learning,” he said.

“I can't sit here and promise you $30,000 right now,” said Debbie Condon, school board chairman, “but I can ask Mr. (Fred) Oliver and Dr. (John) DeCotis to look into it.”

The question of PTO funding and liability was brought up again by Cindy Carson, outgoing president of J.C. Booth Middle School PTO, who asked the board to look into its current policies on paying for school clinic workers and providing for employee benefits. While the proposed budget earmarks $5,000 for elementary school clinic workers, it does not cover the middle and high schools.

Carson said the role of the middle school clinic worker has grown in responsibility over the years. “There are lots of prescription drugs dispensed in our schools. The clinic worker has assumed a more important position,” she said.

Carson said in one month at J.C. Booth, the clinic worker dispensed 373 prescription drugs, placed 272 phone calls and dealt with 373 sick students. She said 25 percent of the PTO budget goes to funding the clinic. “As parents, should this be our priority? Should benefits be funded by the PTO?” Carson asked the board.

DeCotis admitted there was confusion over who pays for what in the clinics this past year. “We're going to look at it point by point,” he said. Board member Woody Shelnutt said he would like to see the middle and high schools get $5,000 for their clinics as well.

In other business, the board:

ä Named Anthony W. Smith assistant principal at Starr's Mill High School. He comes to Starr's Mill from Morrow Middle School in Morrow where he was a computer technology teacher.

ä Approved the lease/purchase of 23 new school buses.

ä Agreed to sell 17 old buses to the highest bidder. Money made from the sale will be used to buy surveillance cameras ($750) for school buses not already equipped. Currently, 95 buses in the district's fleet of 152 have cameras.