October 31, 2022
The morning that students at Woodland Hills Elementary returned to school from the annual Humble ISD Fall Break, they were met with a surprise.
The construction fencing and green mesh tarp that had surrounded the front of the campus for months was starting to be removed, which revealed a large green dragon and a new “Fairytale” themed playground.
“It felt like Christmas Day,” WHE Principal Cindy Barker said.
That day the announcement was made that the new playground was open for business.
“The cheers and the claps and the kids just loved it,” Barker said. “It was exciting.”
On Tuesday, October 25, the district celebrated the new playground with a dedication ceremony on campus. The community was invited out to bring their kids to the new playground and have a great time playing outside. The new Woodland Hills playground is the first of 30 new playgrounds being built across the district.
The WHE third grade choir performed two songs for the crowd and Humble ISD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Fagen also addressed the crowd.
“This has been such an exciting vision to create a community asset at every single elementary and middle school in the entire district,” Fagen said. “To see one finished is so rewarding. We thought the communities, the parents and kids would love it but to see how much they love it has been fantastic.”
Humble ISD Board of Trustees Robert Scarfo, Chris Parker, Marques Holmes and Nancy Morrison were also present at the dedication event.
The new Woodland Hills Elementary School playground has a fairytale theme. Equipment includes: a dragon that children can climb, castle-themed structures with slides, a climbing web, and fireman’s poles and ladders. There are also spinning pieces to climb in and spin, swings, overhead climbers, and sway pods.
“It is amazing for our community,” Barker said. “I live right here in Bear Branch and every time I drive by, I see people at our school playing on the weekends or coming up and bringing pizza for dinner and letting the kids run around and play. To see families doing that means a lot.”
The handicapped-accessible flooring features depictions of fish, alligator, lily pads, flowers, a frog, and turtle. There are also knight and princess character cut-outs where children can place their face in place of the characters’ faces. There are two new playground areas on the campus: one area is designed for older children, and one area is designed for younger children.
Elementary playgrounds at Humble ISD schools are open to the public when school is not in session.
“We want to make sure that we are reinvesting into every community and maintaining those property values,” Fagen said. “We already have great schools. People want to be here for that, but we also want them to have wonderful places that they can play together with their families.”