Schmitz Park Elementary School students will return to school this fall to find their once asphalt playground replaced with a grassy field and a new fitness course thanks to Seattle Neighborhood Matching Funds grants and thousands of parent volunteer hours.

Less than a year ago, the school's playground was a blanket of thick asphalt. During the past few years, parents and school staff rallied to apply for grants to provide a safer area for students to spend their recess and physical education classes, said Schmitz Park parent Mary Kunce who's been working on the project.

This spring, more than $200,000 in matching funds grants from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods was awarded to city organizations. The Schmitz Park Parent Teacher Association received over $13,000 from that allotment to build a fitness course on the school's playground.

Last year another city grant helped replace the asphalt playground with a grass field surrounded by a gravel pathway. The Schmitz Park Parent Teacher Association has matched the city funding with thousands in cash, volunteer hours and in-kind donations.

The idea to build a fitness course at Schmitz Park was a long-time dream of the school's retired physical education teacher, Barbara Herring, said Grant Varney, the incoming co-president of the parent teacher association.

Herring led Schmitz Park students to win several national President's Physical Activity and Fitness awards. It was Herring's belief that physical education is just as important to a well-rounded education as classroom studies, said Varney.

Students learned unconventional ways to stay in shape under Herring's instruction, such as how to juggle and unicycle.

"The kids love the idea of a fitness course because they worship Mrs. Herring," said Varney. "It was one of her dreams to have an upper body obstacle course. She wasn't just your meat and potatoes physical education teacher."

The fitness course will feature about $10,000 worth of equipment; a horizontal ladder, pull-up bars, parallel bars and a climbing wall. Most of the structures are made of galvanized steel. Last Saturday, volunteers worked most of the day to build a raised bed for the fitness course.

Playground equipment should have a cushioned fall zone; at least 12 inches deep of protective surfacing material like pea gravel or hardwood mulch, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The material should extend a minimum of 6 feet in all directions from the edge of the fitness equipment on a raised bed.

Last Saturday, parent and community volunteers held a work party to finish installing the fitness course and fall zone. The goal is to improve upper body strength, coordination and also provide a challenging element to the older students fitness regimen. The course will also be a good resource for physical education classes, said Kunce.

The new grass field and fitness course will be dedicated on the first day of school.

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com