The Willow Glen Resident

Council Watch

Challenger seeks OK to become 'full-fledged' school

Officials envision a proper playground and new preschool

By Cecily Barnes

Three boys sit in a semicircle on the blacktop and play cards. A group of girls is swinging a jump rope for another little girl, who leaps breathlessly over the swinging line. Four boys stand in a square and bounce a ball.

Morning recess at Willow Glen's Challenger School resembles any other elementary school playtime, except for one thing--there's not a speck of playground equipment in sight.

Sectioned off by a 6-foot-high black fence, the play area has no basketball hoops, no slides, no hopscotch outlines, no monkey bars, no swings--not even a bench. Challenger Principal David Mounteer says he hopes this will soon change.

School officials plan to appear before the Planning Commission, possibly as soon as March 25, to request a conditional use permit. If approved, the permit will allow the school to spread its play area into currently unused space, set up playground equipment and open a preschool. The private school now has students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"It's been the topic of conversation since we opened," Mounteer said. "I think the parents knew the process would take a few months, but we're all very excited."

Challenger School moved into the old Marshalls building next to PW Market on Meridian Avenue about seven months ago, just in time for the 1997-98 school year.

Although developers originally intended to apply for a permit before opening, they skipped the process due to vocal opposition from the neighbors. Instead they found a loophole in the law which allowed them to open the school without a permit, as long as they did not have a playground.

Now they are going back to make the school complete. Nearby residents who had been opposed to the school at first say they no longer object to the playground, since the school has worked to mitigate their concerns and proved itself a good neighbor.

"Obviously the relationship with Challenger has been bittersweet, but I must say it has improved from the beginning," said neighbor Rhonda Hansen. " We have been very actively involved with the Planning Department, which has been very receptive to hearing the issues, fears and concerns of neighbors and making sure all the pieces are properly addressed. We've been really very pleased working with them."

The only concern remaining is noise from the children playing, Hansen says. To address this, she and other neighbors plan to request that the city require additional trees along the property line to mitigate the sound.

"Obviously, when the playground moves closer to the homes, it will get noisier than it already is," Hansen said. "But [school officials] have moved the noisier apparatus, such as the basketball courts, as far away from the residents as possible, and the children will be requested not to play along the property line. We're hoping that this will all come to pass; obviously we will continue to monitor what happens."

Parents say they look forward to seeing slides, monkey bars, four-square courts and other playground equipment on the school campus, especially for the younger kids.

"It's not that much of a problem [for my daughter] because she plays soccer and likes to jump rope. If she was in kindergarten or first or second grade I would be more concerned," said parent Kathy Swift, whose fourth-grade daughter attends Challenger. "It would be nice to see it as a full-fledged school."

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