The new design provides a welcoming entrance reflecting the historic beauty of the building. The layout enhances pedestrian flow, safety, and provides a more functional area to accommodate student pick-up and other community events.

Playground Redesign

Phase I of the Playground Improvement Project was completed in May 2002 by Daniel Bagley students, teachers, friends, neighbors, and parents.

What we did:

• Put in a 3000-square-foot play area with state-of-the-art equipment
• Installed two 500-square-foot landscape areas with mature trees, shrubs, ground cover and a bench (habitat inviting enough that a female killdeer bird laid eggs in the south bed!)
• Installed 10 rain-barrels to collect water for irrigation of the new landscaped areas over the dry summer months
• Installed a kid's size soccer “field” on the asphalt, with lines and net goals
• Painted a new, colorful United States map by the habitat garden

How we did it:

• 4 Saturday work parties
• Over 1600 hours of volunteer labor, including 225 hours donated by Seattle Works group (www.seattleworks.org)

Phase II was another wonderful community experience, completed in May 2004. We teamed with neighbor Bethany Community Church to move the north play structure to the central-south end of the playground. Not only did Bethany fund the cost to dismantle and reconstruct the play structure, they supplied 200 volunteers on work party day, including food preparers and child care.

Thanks to parent Tracy Woodman and the Neighborhoops program of the Sonics and Storm T.E.A.M Foundation, we also received a regulation-size basketball court on the playground, complete with new hoops and 2″ asphalt resurfacing. With T.E.A.M. (Teaching, Education and Motivating), the Sonics create and/or refurbish a court a year to provide opportunities for kids in Western Washington to participate in athletics (and basketball-related activities in particular).

Phase III was completed in May 2007 with the continued partnership between Daniel Bagley and our neighbors across the street, Bethany Community Church. Bethany funded the construction of a parking lot on the grounds along the 80th Street perimeter and the School District agreed to a long-term lease arrangement with the church. This is a win-win: Bethany needs parking capacity for evening and weekend activities and future campus expansion and Daniel Bagley needs a financial partner for continuing the Grounds Improvement projects. For Daniel Bagley, the new parking lot:

• Eliminates safety risks by taking car and truck traffic out of the play area (garbage service, deliveries, etc.)
• Allows staff to park on-site rather than in the surrounding neighborhood
• Frees neighborhood spaces for parents who need to park during drop-off and/or pick-up
• Reduces peak traffic congestion

We sincerely thank merchants who have donated cash, food, and drinks to our Grounds Improvements Projects!