PRINCE FREDERICK — Students at St. Leonard Elementary School will come back from summer break next year to a new playground built so that children who use wheelchairs or walkers can reach it and play on it.
The Calvert County Board of Education voted 5-0 on Nov. 5 to buy and install the playground and related site work through a cooperative purchasing contract with GameTime, a playground manufacturer the school system has used on other elementary school projects.
The existing playground has reached the end of its useful life, Charles Davis, who presented the project for the school system, told the board. He said the replacement is meant to give students a safe, modern and inclusive place to play that meets current safety standards.
The work goes beyond the play equipment. It includes new safety surfacing, fencing and site amenities.
Why now, for a summer project
Installation is planned for next summer, Davis said, but the school system wants the order placed this year to avoid a price increase of about 4% that takes effect Jan. 1. Once the order is in, the materials will be stored until the work begins.
The price was stated two ways during the meeting. Sheldon Taylor, the school system’s supervisor of finance and procurement, gave it as $435,444 when he introduced the item and as $534,444 when he read the formal recommendation a few minutes later. The Chronicle has not yet confirmed which figure is in the contract.
Either way, the money comes from the school system’s approved capital improvement program, Taylor said, not from the school’s operating budget.
That answered a question from a board member who noted that elementary schools often hold large fundraisers for playgrounds and asked whether St. Leonard families had paid for any of this one. The school community has funded improvements to the existing playground over the years, Davis said, but the replacement is entirely a capital project.
Part of an accessibility push
St. Leonard was chosen through the school system’s playground safety committee, which recommended certain schools for replacement because of accessibility problems. At many schools, Davis said, there was not even an accessible sidewalk leading down to the play area.
A board member who had reviewed the plans said the design includes a number of accessible areas within the playground itself and called it “a fantastic design.”
The purchase follows a similar one a year ago. In October 2025 the board awarded GameTime a $408,748 contract for an intermediate playground at Huntingtown Elementary that included a path meeting Americans with Disabilities Act standards, according to a Citizen Portal summary of that meeting. That vote was also 5-0.
Using a cooperative contract lets the school system buy at prices already competitively bid by another public agency instead of running its own solicitation.
St. Leonard Elementary, at 5370 St. Leonard Road, enrolled 401 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade in the 2024-25 school year, federal enrollment data show.
One board member said the timeline was a matter of personal interest: a second grader at home will want to know when the new equipment opens.
The playground was one of two purchases the board approved that night. Members also awarded a $1,392,708 contract for new parking lot and stadium entrance lighting at Calvert High School, a project that still needs approval from the Board of County Commissioners.
