Waterford ― Two Great Neck Elementary School parents are urging officials to solve the flooding problem at the school’s outdoor play area.

They say the flooding has led students to forfeit a “proper recess,” by being relegated to smaller outside play areas, or to the indoor gym, and are requesting the town install drainage on the field.

“We need some kind of French drain or something around the field,” parent Narciss Greene said Monday. “And it needs to be part of the next budget cycle for this to be addressed.”

Greene ― whose son attends preschool at Great Neck and whose daughter will start school there soon ― said she began noticing problems with flooding at the field and adjacent playground in 2021.

“I want them to go outside as often as they possibly can,” she said of her children. “If this is something that can be fixed, then we need to fix it.”

LeeAnn Page, whose daughter is in fifth grade and whose son is in kindergarten at the school, agreed the field has flooded for years, and it’s leading to frustration from parents.

“I’m kind of hearing bits and pieces in many directions, but now it’s coming to a boiling point because our kids are limited to a very limited portion of the field,” she said. “They’re basically just limited to the blacktop.”

Greene wrote letters urging the town to take action and handed them out to parents to sign last week while they were picking up their children.

“And many parents were like, ‘oh yeah, my kids talked about that.’ Almost every person I’ve talked to was like, oh my gosh, thank you for doing this,” she said.

In the letter, she wrote that the field does not drain well, creating “muddy conditions,” that have led students to have “extremely limited outdoor recess multiple times this year.”

Greene claimed water has damaged the rubber mat that the playscape sits on. School Principal Billie Shea said issues with the over 10-year-old mat were due more to “the natural aging of the material,” and agreed it requires replacement.

As of Monday, Town Clerk David Campo said only two parents’ had submitted letters to his office. But Greene was hopeful others would follow.

A much bigger project than anticipated

Shea said during periods of snow or rainfall the field tends to hold a lot of moisture, which results in ponding and muddy patches that people can sink into.

“It definitely has impacted recess at times,” added Superintendent of Schools Thomas Giard III. “Depending on the amount of rain or snowfall, they’ll make a decision as to whether its dry enough, and safe enough, to put kids out on that back field.”

The students, who already take their 30-minute recess in the gym if it rains or snows, are restricted to the blacktop if they are allowed outside when the field is flooded. The school’s Parent-Teacher Association has donated $500 worth of sidewalk chalk, cornhole games and other toys for them to use there.

Shea and Giard said they have discussed the issue with the Recreation and Parks department, which maintains the school grounds

“I think it was just a much bigger project than they anticipated,” Shea said.

Recreation and Parks Director Ryan McNamara said the town has received a $10,000 quote to conduct an engineering survey of the playground. He said the cost estimate was high and wanted to discuss other options. He said he will meeting next week with Giard and school’s building and grounds manager to put a plan together.

“To address it from a physical standpoint would take some time,” Giard said. “We’re going to talk to them and see if we can enhance the health of the grass for the field, hoping that could mitigate the moisture issues.”

He said if that doesn’t work, the school would “look at the options to address it in a more physical way,” adding drainage could be an option.

Giard said that would involve a capital project request initiated by the school board that would then need approval from the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and Representative Town Meeting. Greene said she is trying to mobilize parents to speak about the issue at the April 8 RTM meeting.

d.drainville@theday.com