Washington Students Get on Track

While the skies above were gray, threatening to pour rain down on the field, spirits below were anything but dampened at Washington School Thursday afternoon for the dedication of the school's new track.

The final piece of the school's two-year renovation of the playground area, the new track brings back a feature missing from the neighborhood for over a century, according to PTO officials. The last track existed at Washington's predecessor, Grant School, in 1909.

The new track, constructed from crushed stone and stone dust, was installed over the summer as a part of a multi-year fundraising effort to refurbish the school's playground. Prior to track installation, new playground equipment was installed along with other upgrades to the recreation space.

"It can enhance our track and field program gearing the kids to the physical fitness test," Washington physical education teacher Michael Bukowsky said.

Bukowsky said he will be putting more practices for the mile run into the curriculum and provide more recreational running with the track in place. He said the track will allow for an easier track program since the running space is detailed out. The track is slightly less than a quarter of a mile, with five and a half laps needed to complete a mile.

As part of the new track, the PTO will be implementing a recess runners club at the school. Luzzi said the program will allow for students to run around the track during recess hours to help set personal and school goals. She said Bukowsky and parent volunteers will be working together to keep track of goals and award students with various sneaker tokens to help highlight their progress.

Luzzi said some of the school goals will include tallying up the total running mileage for the school and highlighting to students how far they've gone. This will include highlighting the distance from Westfield to New York or longer trips such as San Francisco.

The track's addition has proved popular with school officials, who have noted that neighborhood residents have been utilizing the track before and after school and on weekends.

"It should be a nice addition to the school community," school principal Andrew Perry said. "For kids during and after school and for the community groups."