By Lindsay Peyton

All of the students gathered in the gym at White Center Heights Elementary School on Wednesday, Sept. 27 to celebrate the opening of their new pre-school playground, a project several years in the making. 

There were a number of special guests on campus, which is located at 10015 6 Ave SW, but Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett stole the show and even passed the football around with a few students. 

“It’s very important to stay active,” he told the children. “It’s important to stay fit and stay in shape.”

He also stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. 

His thoughts were echoed by Claire Verity, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of Washington. 

“We want each student here to be active and healthy,” she said.

The health insurance company donated $15,000 for the playground project. “Our mission is to help people live healthy lives, and this was definitely a way to make that happen,” she said. 

After the assembly ended, Verity and Lockett headed to check out the new playground with the preschool students. Lockett took a couple of trips down the slide. 

Principal Anne Reece at White Center Heights Elementary smiled from the sidelines. The playground for the school’s Early Head Start Program has been her passion project for a long time. 

She added Early Head Start to the campus to meet a need for additional instruction at an early age. The federally funded preschool program serves children younger than 3 from low-income families, meeting their early education, health and nutritional needs.

White Center Heights already had a preschool program for 3 and 4-year old children – but Reece wanted the school to offer even more and introduced Early Head Start to campus two years ago. 

The program now serves 26 children in morning and afternoon classes – and includes a nine-week training component for parents. 

Reece said that Early Head Start has various minimum requirements – including that schools have a fenced-off or contained play area for younger children, separate from the school’s other playground, which serves kindergarten through sixth grade. 

For the past couple of years, White Center Heights Elementary teachers have done their best to provide a place for the Early Head Start children to play, Reece added. But the school did not have the required separate space.

The campus improvised, putting up cones and carving out a makeshift area from the existing playground for the school’s youngest children. 

The new playground will eliminate the conflicts that arise when teachers try to balance time outside between preschoolers and the rest of the students. 

Anne Arnold, director of pre-kindergarten and elementary success for Highline Public Schools, said that physical activity is an integral part of the school day. 

“We need to serve the whole child,” she said. “This is a huge win for us.”

She added that the Early Head Start program has only been in the district for about three years. 

“If we start early, we have a much better opportunity to make a difference,” she said. “We want the children to be challenged and to be really engaged in their learning and to be very excited about it.”

For more information about White Center Heights Elementary, visit www.highlineschools.org/whitecenterheights.

For more information about UnitedHealthcare’s outreach programs, visit www.uhc.com/about-us/community-connection.