The Kingston City School District (KCSD) is replacing the playground surface at the former Frank L. Meagher Elementary School after determining that rubber chips were unsafe for young students.
Meagher shut its doors as an elementary school at the end of the 2018-19 school year, reopening as the KCSD’s administrative headquarters and pre-K hub, which serves around 120 4- and 5-year-olds from across the district.
At a meeting of the board of education held on Wednesday, February 21, superintendent Paul Padalino said that the removal of the rubber chips was being done through an abundance of caution. The superintendent added the playground in question was not as popular with students as other outdoor areas at Meagher.
“We don’t really believe that they necessarily are dangerous, but we’re going to take them up anyway,” Padalino said, adding that a permanent solution would be discussed at a later date. “We’re going to remove those from that playground and probably replace them temporarily with wood chips.”
The playground had wood chips on the surface until three years ago when school officials began to notice problems.
“One of the issues back there is there is no sun,” Padalino said. “There’s the shade of the hill and there’s the shade of the building. So when it rains or it snows or it gets wet, that mulch gets moldy very quickly. So we’re going to work on making sure we turn it over, keep up with it, and try to keep that from happening while we wait to be able to get the right weather to get installation of a soft surface back there.”
The district has come under fire over the past several months from parents who were concerned that other elementary school playgrounds in the district were composed of crumb rubber, which a 2015 report by the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science found that of the 96 chemicals detected, nearly half had no toxicity screenings to determine their health effects. Other chemicals found in the study underwent incomplete toxicity assessments, and of those, 20 percent were considered probable carcinogens, and 40 percent were found to be irritants causing problems for either breathing, the skin, or the eyes.
But in January of this year, the results of a study conducted by materials characterization group RJ Lee, Inc. found that the Edson Elementary School surface laid by Playsafe Surfacing, LLC, a Plant City, Florida company was poured and not crumb rubber, with no levels of chemicals that posed a risk to children.
“Quite simply most of this material is at a level which it could not be detected,” said Michael O’Rourke, a consultant with RJ Lee. “(Testers) did find a small amount of formaldehyde…but when it comes to a contact standard, it is well below what OSHA would recommend.”
O’Rourke added that getting air exposure data from students and faculty using the playground would be “virtually impossible” as they spend too little time on the surface to yield anything conclusive.
The surface is described as “a unique combination of EPDM rubber granules and a cushion layer of shredded recycled rubber tires utilizing a European polymer that is poured in place on site providing a seamless surface for endless applications,” on the Playsafe website. “Primarily providing critical fall height protection for children on playgrounds.”
Prior testing was performed by Ulster BOCES, covering George Washington, Harry L. Edson, and Robert R. Graves elementary schools, with Padalino noting during an October 11, 2023 school board meeting that they came in under United States Environmental Protection Agency standards.
“Our lead testing did come back at 40 milligrams per kilogram, and the EPA standard is 400 milligrams per kilograms,” he said. “They were tested in multiple locations at the playgrounds.”
During the February 21 meeting, Padalino answered questions from the school board about unfinished work being done to resurface playgrounds at Edward R. Crosby and Chambers elementary schools.
“We’ve got to wait for the weather to get better,” he said. “Chambers probably should have been done, but someone damaged it.”
Some parents remain skeptical that the district has done enough to ensure the playground surfaces in question are safe and non-toxic. At a school board meeting held on Wednesday, February 7, parent Kostas Katsaras said he’d experienced “ignored e-mails” and “no communication to offer a comment on the playgrounds.”
“I think it’s reprehensible and I think you’re falling short of your duties under the law to protect the children,” said Katsaras, claiming studies and reports cited by district officials as being incomplete and inconclusive.
“Children engage in hand-to-mouth behavior,” he said. “They’re always on the floor. And this is not an issue that we’re just going to let go.”
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