LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — As school gets ready to start this week, Lucerne Elementary School District has introduced its latest campus improvement project.

On Thursday, school leaders, staff and families gathered at the campus for a ribbon cutting for its newly renovated playground, which features a new play structure.

Children blew bubbles and admired the playground’s steps and slide while munching on frosted cookies with the school mascot, an eagle, in the school’s colors of blue and white.

The playground structure, which is seated on artificial turf that will help keep the area cleaner and safer, cost approximately $648,233, said Superintendent/Principal Megan Grant.

The funds came from Measure A, a 2016 school bond approved by Lucerne voters by a margin of 71.16 to 28.84 percent.

Measure A provided the district with $4 million to conduct needed upgrades to the campus.

Grant said the bond funded three new classroom buildings — for a total of six classrooms — plus the playground.

She credited the community for supporting the bond, and the school board and the bond committee for their work to carry out the bond’s requirements.

““Our school is truly a special place and this is going to be an incredible edition,” Grant said.

Grant said it’s not just a playground, but a place to come together.

She reminded students that it will be up to them to help care for it.

School Board member Elise Jones, whose four children attended school in Lucerne, said it was easy to make the decisions related to the bond.

Another school board member, Nicole Zwinge, whose three children also attended Lucerne Elementary, then stepped up with a pair of large ceremonial scissors to cut the blue ribbon before the children charged up to start enjoying the playground.

Grant told Lake County News that the bond funds have been expended, although there are still some projects to complete.

Those include the construction of a storage building on 17th Avenue and the planned resurfacing of the rest of the playground and parking lot. 

The new playground is ready just in time for school, which begins on Wednesday. 

Grant said she didn’t have firm enrollment numbers yet, but students at the start of the school year are expected to total about 285.

Editor’s note: Editor Elizabeth Larson is a member of Lucerne Elementary’s bond oversight committee.

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