Billings schools is again looking at a long-considered land swap with the city, but this time there's a new urgency.
Part of the potential swap includes land adjacent to Rose Park Elementary that is actually city land that's part of Rose Park, but ended up being used for the school playground years ago.
The problem is that the Rose Park Elementary PTA is raising money for a new, inclusive playground — but the plan for equipment installation would have to be redone unless a land swap can transfer the playground area to the school system.
The district has a handful of awkwardly placed city holdings that it would make sense to acquire, and the city is eyeing land adjacent to Castle Rock Park that's part of the school system.
In a lot of ways, the trade makes sense.
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"(The city) has a high need to get more green space up in the Heights," said SD2 facilities director Scott Reiter. "It would be beneficial to the schools," to unload inholdings.
The problem for trustees is that a swap would favor the city 2-1 in acreage.
"I think that it makes sense to do a swap," said trustee Janna Hafer. "I don't think it makes sense to do a two-for-one swap."
The school district also has other interests, Reiter said, namely edging into Pioneer Park from Senior High or acquiring a slice of the Lincoln Center Parking lot owned and used by the city.
The parcels in play that the district could acquire include the Rose Park area near the playground and next to the school parking lot, a strip of land running through the Career Center grounds, and a parcel near Beartooth Elementary.
The Castle Rock land that the district could give up is near Sandstone Elementary and Castle Rock Middle School.
Land swaps involving city land other than parks would get more complicated, Reiter said, because it would involve another city department.
Trustees took no action of the swap at their last meeting and acknowledged that it wouldn't get resolved overnight.
Fundraisers for the Rose Park project still have tens of thousands of dollars left to raise, but hope to begin construction in 2019.
Rose Park has a classroom for students with what the district terms “low-incidence disabilities.” Those students are more likely to use a wheelchair, have limited mobility or have a medical issue that means the current playground equipment is off limits, and all the students have some kind of vision impairment.
The new, inclusive playground would accommodate all the school’s students in the same space — current equipment, surrounded by a lipped concrete perimeter and tiny pebbles that shift like sand, is off limits to students with certain physical disabilities.