At a Glance
Client: South View Elementary, Muncie Community Schools
Location: Muncie, Indiana
Brand: AAA State of Play
Project Value: $225,879
Timeline: Summer 2025 install, completed before first day of school
Student Population: 500+ students, preschool through 5th grade
Principal: Dr. Casey Smitherman
Installed Equipment: Quaker Mill Play System, Egg Whirler, Poseidon's Hideout, 7-foot Elite Single Post Swing with Nest Seat, 8-foot Elite Single Post Swing with Shade and Child Adaptive Seat, Standing Drum Quintet, Curved Post Net Bridge, Free Play Sit-N-Spin, Wheelchair Scaling Ladder, Talk Tube Set, Flower Collection, Freestanding Ball Maze Panel, Plinko Panel, 10-foot Single Post Hexagon Fabric Shade, 4 Section Bubble Wall Climber
Published Coverage: Muncie Journal (September 17, 2025), The Star Press (September 17, 2025)
The Context
South View Elementary serves over 500 students in a high-poverty area of Muncie, Indiana. The school has three preschool classrooms and multiple classrooms of students with exceptional disabilities, many of whom have autism. Before this project, a significant portion of the student body could not fully access the existing playground. Preschoolers were limited in what they could use. Students with physical disabilities were functionally excluded from most elevated equipment. Students with sensory needs did not have appropriate engagement opportunities.
The school sits in a neighborhood without nearby parks or accessible green space. Families in the area did not have a natural outdoor gathering place. Kids who wanted to play after school hours did not have a destination. Community events that would normally happen at a neighborhood park had nowhere to happen at all.
The Muncie Community Schools district had committed to a series of playground upgrades across multiple schools. South View was part of that series, with a dedicated allocation from a $226,000 school improvement grant. The project needed to address inclusion, community access, and tight summer installation timing, all in one scope.
The Decisions That Shaped the Project
Front-Facing Placement for Community Access
Dr. Reynolds, the district superintendent, directed that the new playground be placed at the front of the school facing the neighborhood, rather than tucked behind the building with the existing playground. The stated intent was that the playground should serve both students during school hours and the surrounding community in evenings and on weekends.
"He really wanted to make sure it was up front so that it is able to be used by all of our community, not just our school," Dr. Smitherman said. "There aren't always green spaces and parks available for everyone, and especially not those that are accessible. We really want to be a community hub."
That one placement decision changed the function of the entire project. The playground was no longer a school asset. It became a neighborhood asset.
Integrated Inclusive Equipment, Not a Separate Section
The equipment specification was built around one principle: every child at South View should be able to play on the same playground at the same recess. The inclusive equipment was not placed in a separate accessibility section. It was integrated directly into the main play structure alongside standard climbing features, slides, and swings.
The Wheelchair Scaling Ladder was installed as part of the main structure, allowing children to transfer from wheelchairs onto climbing equipment. The Adaptive Seat Swing with shade was placed on the same swing bay as the standard Nest Swing, so a child using the adaptive seat is in the middle of the action instead of isolated at the edge. The sensory components, Standing Drum Quintet, Talk Tube Set, Plinko Panel, Bubble Wall Climber, Ball Maze Panel, and Flower Collection, were distributed throughout the play space rather than clustered in a corner.
Dr. Smitherman, reflecting on the outcome: "Kids with exceptional disabilities have been super excited to be out here and access the equipment. Many kids in our exceptional needs classrooms have autism, so for them to have all these sensory areas to play in is particularly helpful for them."
Integration with the Existing Playground
South View already had a playground on site behind the building. The challenge was to install a new playground in a completely different location without creating two disconnected play areas. The goal was for the entire site to read as one cohesive playground.
The layout was designed so that a teacher can supervise both areas from one position and kids naturally move between the old and new structures during recess. The paths connecting the areas were designed for easy traversal. The surfacing was coordinated so the transition feels continuous rather than jarring.
"It just seems like one big space," Dr. Smitherman said. That result did not happen by accident. Helping the customer figure out what the right thing is, is half the battle. Where does every piece go so a teacher can still see the whole thing? How do you make a kid move naturally from old to new? That is not a conversation most companies have. It is the conversation the AAA State of Play team led with.
Summer Installation Before Day One
The project needed to be completed during the final weeks of summer 2025, before students returned for the first day of school. This is a hard deadline with no flexibility. Delays would have meant students returning to a half-finished playground or a fenced-off construction zone instead of a completed installation.
The team coordinated equipment staging, crew scheduling, and site preparation so that everything was ready to go when the windows narrowed. The playground was fully operational before the first bell.
Dr. Smitherman: "I didn't think we'd be ready before school started, but they did it. It was very quick."
The Equipment in Detail
Over two dozen components were specified for South View, each selected for a specific purpose. The Quaker Mill Play System is the main structure, providing the central climbing, sliding, and elevated play experience for the majority of students. Poseidon's Hideout provides an additional themed play experience. The Egg Whirler offers spinning motion that most kids love and that serves as a sensory-input piece for children who seek vestibular stimulation.
The 7-foot Elite Single Post Swing with Nest Seat accommodates multiple children at once, including children who need lateral support to swing safely. The 8-foot Elite Single Post Swing with Shade and Child Adaptive Seat gives children with physical disabilities a fully supported swinging experience integrated into the same swing area as the standard equipment.
The Wheelchair Scaling Ladder allows children to transfer from a wheelchair directly onto climbing equipment. The Standing Drum Quintet, Talk Tube Set, Plinko Panel, and Ball Maze Panel provide individual-level sensory engagement particularly valuable for children with autism. The Bubble Wall Climber adds a tactile and visual climbing surface with transparent domes as handholds. The Flower Collection provides a ground-level tactile manipulation station.
The Curved Post Net Bridge and Free Play Sit-N-Spin add additional dynamic play elements. The 10-foot Single Post Hexagon Fabric Shade provides weather protection over key gathering areas.
Every piece in this list was selected because it serves a specific need. Nothing is on the playground because it was in the catalog.
I call this the Integration Standard. If a child in a wheelchair and a child on foot are not using the same structure at the same recess, the playground fails it. South View passes it.
The Outcome
The playground opened before the first day of school and immediately became the most-used space on the South View campus. Students across every grade level, from preschool through fifth grade, requested access to the new equipment. The school had to rearrange recess scheduling to give every grade time on the new playground because the demand was universal.
"Everybody was excited," Dr. Smitherman said. "Even some kids who are now at the middle school have come back and told us, 'That's not fair, you put it in after I went to middle school.'"
Students with exceptional disabilities are now accessing playground equipment they could not previously use. Children with autism are engaging with sensory components that support how they interact with the world. Preschoolers are using age-appropriate equipment that was not available to them before. Every population the project was designed for is being served.
The community has begun using the playground in evenings and on weekends, validating the front-facing placement decision. Families from the surrounding neighborhood now have an accessible outdoor gathering space that did not exist before the installation.
Published coverage appeared in both the Muncie Journal and The Star Press on September 17, 2025, highlighting the inclusive design and community impact of the project. Both articles quoted Dr. Smitherman on the value of the playground for students with exceptional disabilities and the broader student body.
What Dr. Smitherman Said
Quotes from the post-installation interview with the school principal:
"This playground is exceptionally nice for us, especially in a high-poverty area."
"We've seen lots of people in the community coming in the evening as well."
"We wanted to make sure it was able to be used by all of our community, not just our school."
"Kids with exceptional disabilities have been super excited to be out here and access the equipment."
"We really want to be a community hub."
"It just seems like one big space."
"I didn't think we'd be ready before school started, but they did it."
"Everybody was excited, even kids who already went to middle school."
"Many kids in our exceptional needs classrooms have autism, so for them to have all these sensory areas to play in is particularly helpful for them."
"It's a great community asset for us."
Why This Project Matters
South View Elementary is a clear example of what happens when a playground is specified for a specific student population and community context rather than ordered from a catalog. Every decision on this project carried weight because the stakes were real. A high-poverty neighborhood without nearby parks. Students with exceptional disabilities who could not access the old equipment. A tight summer timeline. An existing playground that needed to integrate with the new installation.
Every one of those constraints could have compromised the outcome. None of them did. The equipment was specified for the actual population, the placement was chosen for community impact, the layout was designed for site cohesion, and the installation was executed on the hard deadline.
The result is a playground that serves 500 students across every ability level, anchors a community that did not previously have an outdoor gathering space, and is going to be the memory these kids carry for the next 20 years. That is what AAA State of Play does. That is the job.
