Koblerville Elementary School Vice Principal Jonas Barcinas takes a selfie while volunteers paint a “pyramid” made from old tires.
Contributed photo
THE new playground made of old tires at Koblerville Elementary School is beneficial to the students’ mental and socio-emotional health, Vice Principal Jonas Barcinas said on Saturday.
“We want to keep the students busy. The academics are there when they get into their classrooms, but how do they release their mental stress? They learn so much all day, just like adults, who like to go happy hour, right? So we need to find a way so these kids have some kind of their own happy hour to release the stress, the tension,” Barcinas said in an interview.
He said mental and social emotional health is important. “We talk about all of these things, but sometimes, we adults think we are the only ones who are stressed out. The kids are also stressed out.”
He said Koblerville Elementary School now has a beautiful playground, which did not cost the school a single cent, thanks to a Korean construction company, CJ Innovation, which gathered recycled materials, spent time and services and paid for labor cost.
Barcinas also thanked the officers and members of the Parent, Teacher and Student Association as well as volunteers from the Marianas High School Honor Society, Distorted Miniz Car Club, the Mormon organization, AmeriCorps, other parents and staff for joining CJ Innovation in creating a brand new playground that includes pyramids, “long worms” and other play structures all made of old tires.
“The mission and vision of putting up a playground and the recycling of old tires came from Koblerville Elementary School Principal Naomi M. Nishimura, and [we] sat down to really map out how these tires will look like,” Barcinas said.
He said they began searching for designs, with teachers sharing great photos of various types of playgrounds. “So, we took their recommendations and got everyone involved,” he added.
They also shared the idea with the Board of Education, Commissioner of Education Lawrence F. Camacho and other key officials. “They really liked it,” Barcinas said, adding that BOE Chair Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong described it as “a really good project.”
Barcinas said they then worked with CJ Innovation, which had recently completed school projects on the island and made contributions to the community.
He said CJ Innovation was “very instrumental in putting all these tires [together], and when they were all set up, we got all the parents, AmeriCorps and other volunteers to paint the tires and come up with a beautiful playground.”
“I’m just so grateful that we didn’t have to purchase an expensive playground,” Barcinas said. “If we could think creatively on how to recycle things that are just in front of us, and around the community, we can accomplish a lot,” he added.
“CJ Innovation was the one that put all things together,” he reiterated. “The company has been coming to the school every day to get everything ready and when they set it up, that’s when we communicated with the PTSA for the painting. The company donated labor and time and services to help us out. On behalf of the PTSA, and our school principal, we want to thank CJ Innovation so much for its contribution to build the playground so we can engage our kids in other activities, not just the swing and whatnot but other activities to make them busy every day, rather than throwing rocks, getting into fights,” Barcinas said.
They also plan to repair the school’s basketball court, he added.
