St. Paul school comes together to build adapted playground

It's the start of the day at Bridge View School, home to the most profoundly disabled of St. Paul's special-education students, and teachers and others are at the ready, offering sign-language greetings to some children and assistance to others who are in wheelchairs.

Evan Engelking, 9, wears a T-shirt with a cartoon figure on it, and when the straps covering his chest are pulled aside, it's revealed to be the character Agent P, a secret-agent platypus, with a slogan reading "Unstoppable Agent P."

Teacher Syndy Walfoort smiles, grabs hold of the wheelchair, and upon turning it around, says to Evan with affection, "Here we go, Mr. Unstoppable."

Bonds between students, family members and teachers are strong at Bridge View, fueling longtime connections to the school and fostering a communal pride that will come in handy Saturday when a few dozen people are expected to turn out to help build a long-in-the-works adapted playground.

The $200,000 project is being pieced together with assistance from Flagship Recreation, and will include a zip line that students can ride back and forth, a seated area in which children can sway side to side and a structure that provides shade in a blacktopped area that now has just two trees. There will be ramps and surfaced areas, too.

The school's current equipment is outdated, often requiring staff members like Walfoort to do some heavy physical lifting. In the large blacktopped area, weeds poke through, posing a tripping hazard. The pea-sized gravel in a swing-set area makes navigating difficult for students who are in wheelchairs or have walkers.

Planning for the new playground began about five years ago, and the schoolwide effort to build it will be the first such project at the 42-year-old Bridge View since 1999 — when a series of green benches were installed.

"Seems like yesterday — until I look at the pictures of me," said Teresa Doll, an occupational therapist who has been at Bridge View for 30 years.

Bridge View serves about 135 students with severe and profound developmental disabilities. Like any other school, it has graduation ceremonies for its high schoolers, and a homecoming king and queen, Principal Lisa Carrigan said. Unlike most others, however, it provides therapy — physical, music, occupational — and has simpler goals for its students, helping them learn to communicate; make choices; understand their world.

Some students have individual education plans calling for several breaks in the day. Movement helps learning, Doll said, and in many cases, she added, "just being outside gets them away from the noise and the fluorescent lights," offering the calm they need.

About half of the project cost is being covered by the school district. The other half will come from donations and fundraising proceeds. About $50,000 still needs to be raised. (For more about the project, go to bridgeview.spps.org/playground.)

Earlier this year, an $800 check was delivered in the memory of the late Bob Buck, who along with a brother, Tom Buck, attended the school in its first year in 1972. Family members recalled Bridge View as "cutting edge," especially compared with what they described as its "decrepit" predecessor, Crowley School.

"It is fitting that this memorial gift help refurbish the place," a family member wrote in a letter to Carrigan. "Bob would approve."

Evan's mother, Laura Linn, joined Bridge View's playground committee out of a similar sense of obligation. His disabilities, she's explained, came about after Evan and a twin brother were born premature, and he had bleeding in his brain.

"When you have a school like this, it's such a relief," Linn said during a recent visit to the school. "Here, they can sense needs."

Later that week, in the afternoon, Evan was on the playground, being pushed in his wheelchair by teaching assistant Alexandra Ortiz. He had a blanket to keep him warm. The outdoors, Ortiz said, appealed to the boy. She smoothed the hair above his forehead with her hand.

"He loves the wind," she said.

Anthony Lonetree • 651-925-5036