Not equipped for play

Paula Pisani

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Maximiliano Galindo likes to play basketball at

recess.

Sometimes though, he said, it’s just not exciting enough.

The fourth-grader at St. Bonaventure doesn’t have much of a choice. It

has been years since the school has had a full set of playground

equipment on its campus.

And money is tight, school officials say.

“We are looking for donations,” Vice Principal Carole Inzitari said.

Officials hope to fund a playground structure like those found in parks

-- with slides, areas for climbing and safe matting underneath.

At recess, children play sports or trade Pokemon cards, Principal Sister

Carmel Lynch said.

St. Bonaventure once had a playground with monkey bars and slides. But, a

few years ago the school built an outdoor lunch pavilion and had to move

much of its playground equipment.

Then came the bad news.

“It wasn’t safe to put back up. There were a lot of missing pins,”

Inzitari said. “The swings were salvaged but are very outdated. They

allow the children to swing too high.”

While school officials worked to find the funds to build a new playground

for their 630 students, the 35-year-old in-house communications system

broke down.

“Our communications system is held together by cobwebs and dust, so the

playground equipment is on the back burner,” Inzitari said. “In today’s

climate, we feel it’s important to get the system up and running.”

The Parent-Faculty Assn. held a fund-raising event last week, and

although the books indicate it was “a good fund-raiser,” Inzitari said

the majority of the money will go toward the school’s operating expenses.

Whatever is left over will help fix the communications system.

And what, if anything, is left over from that will go toward new

playground equipment.

Kindergarten students now have a wooden structure to climb, but that will

be removed because too many splinters have embedded themselves in little

hands, school officials said. And, older students are not allowed on the

seven playground swings for safety reasons.

That leaves the basketball hoops standing in the parking lot and the

hopscotch squares painted on the asphalt.

“I want a twirly slide,” said Maximiliano, adding he would also like bars

to climb and platforms to play on. “Sometimes it gets boring playing

basketball.”