Community celebrates playground upgrades at Alcott
Will Vraspir wvraspir@hastingstribune.com September 16, 2025
Community members celebrated recent playground upgrades at Alcott Elementary School during a gathering Monday at the school.
Kids from Alcott and beyond tried out the new equipment as the community was served hamburgers, hot dogs and chips during the event.
Additions to the Alcott playground included five new pieces of play equipment, surface changes under existing equipment that make the area accessible for all students, and a turf area that replaces what had previously been dirt and weeds.
Landscaping work at Alcott is still to come, including the planting of five trees at the end of September that are being provided through the Trees for Nebraska Towns Initiative, an effort of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and the Nebraska Forest Service.
A collaboration between the Hastings Public Schools Foundation and the Hastings Board of Education funded the playground upgrades at each of the district’s elementary schools.
Between the two entities, more than $850,000 was raised for the effort to buy new equipment, complete surface and accessibility improvements, and add shade options.
Through Project: Playground, the foundation raised about $450,000, marking the largest fundraising campaign in the history of the organization.
“We had hundreds of donors from all over the nation,” said Executive Director Chris Schukei. To those funds, the district’s board of education added another $400,000.
Renovations at the Alcott playground began about two years ago, before the fundraising efforts were complete.
With funds in hand, they opted to get started. As more money came in, the scope of the upgrades grew.
Schukei said it’s great to see the new equipment up and being used by kids. “This is what we had hoped for out of this,” he said.
Principal Charla Brant said the upgrades did an amazing job of using the available space to enhance the area for children.
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“It’s been such a long time coming,” she said. “The kids love it. It’s a great thing for our students and the community.”
Tori Jolly, a school psychologist at Alcott and Watson, said the changes make the area more inclusive.
“It’s nice to be able to have the kids be able to use the whole playground now,” she said. “The kids really love it.”
Ash and Makayla Thomas brought their son, who is attending kindergarten at the school. They appreciated the changes.
“You have to invest in the kids,” Makayla said. “It’s the only way you’re going to grow the community.”
Alcott is the first elementary to be finished, though work has begun at others.
Phase 1 of new equipment at Longfellow and Lincoln Elementary schools was completed just before the start of school. Additional upgrades are planned to take place in the summer of 2026.
Planning for upgrades at Hawthorne and Watson Elementary Schools is underway, with a construction timeframe of spring 2026.
“Each playground is unique,” Schukei said. “They worked with principals, faculty and parent groups to design the upgrades.”
