Cape school district looks to boost playground safety with boulders

The Cape Girardeau School District plans to boost playground safety with boulders at Clippard Elementary School.

School officials have decided to install 16 boulders, 3-by-3-feet to 4-by-4-feet in size, along the outside of the fence running along the length of the playground bordering Hopper Road.

Josh Crowell, assistant superintendent of support services, said school officials and members of the school’s parent-teacher organization, have been concerned about the proximity of the playground to the street.

The playground is protected by a chain-link fence. But if a vehicle runs off the road, it could crash through the fence and injure children on the playground, Crowell said.

“We just want to make sure the kids are safe on the playground,” Crowell said.

“We didn’t have the capability to just up and move the playground,” he said.

One option would have been to install a guardrail. But Crowell said it would have cost more than $25,000, an expense the school district could not afford right now.

Crowell said school and city staff came up with the idea of installing boulders.

The school district can do the work in-house, he said.

“We have access to free boulders,” Crowell said. An individual is donating the boulders, but does not want to be recognized, he added.

The school system’s maintenance department has the equipment and staff to move the boulders into place, Crowell said.

“This is kind of one of those ‘let’s-make-it-work’ solutions,” he said.

“Working with the city on this actually was very easy,” Crowell said. “The city was very supportive of it.”

The Cape Girardeau City Council has approved a license and indemnity agreement to allow the boulders to be installed on city right of way. There will be no financial impact on the city government, according to city engineer Kelly Green.

Crowell said the boulders will extend onto city right of way by only 8 to 12 inches. Still, school officials wanted to “do it the right way” by getting approval from the City Council.

Plans call for the boulders to be installed before the end of the year.

Crowell said the boulders will look better than a guardrail and won’t rust.

“If a car hits one of them, it will hurt the car more than it will hurt the boulder,” he said.

Crowell said, as far as he knows, the boulders project is a first in the history of the school district.

“I don’t think we have ever had to do this before,” he said.

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