🎡 A fresh limbo for the Cooper School playground

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At the risk of too much playground news, after last week's look at why the Longfellow School playground was quietly torn down last year, here's an update on a school playground that still exists (for now).

The Cooper School playground has been stuck in limbo since the school board announced plans to remove it last fall, citing unsafe equipment and the lack of a maintenance budget for vacant schools. The ensuing pushback from neighbors, organized under the banner of Save Cooper Playground, delayed the removal.

Then, this spring, the school district reversed course and approached the group for help putting together a $100,000 grant request from a Hennepin County fund dedicated to play equipment. They hustled to document community support for the project, a heavily weighted component of the grant, and hundreds of neighbors expressed their desire for rebuilding the play area.

The good news: The grant came through. Minneapolis Public Schools received the full $100,000 it requested, the maximum award from the county fund that is paid for with sales tax money from the Twins stadium. More fundraising would be required, but that amount should cover the majority of the cost of a new playground.

The catch: Neither group wants to build or own the playground. The Save Cooper Playground group would like MPS to keep it; MPS has offered to do some site prep and drainage work but wants someone else to take over the liability and has offered to release the property to another group for basically free. Both groups were under the impression the other would take it on, and because the grant had to come together quickly against a tight deadline, the question wasn't resolved before applying.

In the initial hubbub last year, the two groups brainstormed a few candidates who could lease the property and assume liability for the playground. One is the Longfellow Community Council, which already holds a similar lease on the Community Hops Farm near 38th and Hiawatha. But LCC is facing an uncertain future with dwindling city funding for neighborhood groups, and is in the midst of a leadership change. Another option is the Save Cooper Playground group formalizing into a legal entity and carrying the insurance and maintenance costs; but they say they are too small and grassroots to take on such a liability. A third is the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, since they're already in the business of owning playgrounds and claim school parks when calculating the extent of their award-winning system. Park Board Commissioner Becky Alper, who represents much of Longfellow, has pushed the idea of setting up a park board fund to address the loss of MPS playgrounds, but hasn't been able to get the votes for it.

The simplest solution, in the eyes of the resident group, would be for the school district to keep ownership of the playground. They say that the maintenance costs should be modest with a brand new playground, and point out that the district already holds liability insurance for the property.

On a bigger scale, the school district will have to decide what to do with the school that has been vacant since 2005. It could be torn down to make way for housing, like the Johnson School was in the 70s, or renovated into apartments like the Simmons School at 38th and Minnehaha. It could be repurposed as a different type of school, as the former Longfellow Elementary has been. Or, it could reopen as an elementary school someday, as MPS planned to do as recently as 2014. (Though, declining enrollment has the school district considering closing schools rather than reopening them.)

In the meantime, the vacant schoolhouse has faced increasing issues with vandalism and burglary. The district boarded up the first-floor windows this spring to combat the issue. 

What's next

So, that's the impasse the two groups find themselves at: Holding a big chunk of money for rebuilding, without anyone who wants to own the project. On top of that, the grant money needs to be spent by next fall or it could disappear.

The group recently appealed to Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury for help on the issue. She said she's willing to take a lead role in brokering a solution between the groups, and expressed gratitude for the neighborhood's ongoing work on the issue.

In the interim, the playground remains well-used in its original condition, with signage letting users know to play at their own risk.

For the latest updates from the Save Cooper Playground group, you can sign up for the group's newsletter or follow them on Facebook.