Sudduth Elementary School and  Mississippi State University’s Landscape and Architecture Department recently partnered to design a new and more efficient playground.
After introducing different ideas, Peter Summerlin, an assistant professor in the Landscape Architecture Department, said a new playground would not be possible without the support from the community.
“Through a Health Task Team in the community that has really put a focus on this playground in particular, as well as support from the school and community, the idea of a new playground has been constructed into something more,” Summerlin said.
Because of the support from not only teachers and students at the elementary school, but the community as a whole, this project has the potential to create many unique and useful opportunities.
Another unique factor about this project, Summerlin said, is the children at Sudduth Elementary are giving ideas for the park as well. 
That way, it can be tailored to fit exactly what the students want, as well as being realistic. 
“We’re really interested in tapping into the imagination and creativity of the kids and hopefully pulling some of that into it,” Summerlin said.

Though the playground is being built on the grounds of Sudduth, it will have multiple uses. The hope is it will eventually be used by both the students at Sudduth, and other kids in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said she wants the city join with the Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District for a joint-use agreement for their playground areas and possibly other indoor spaces. This way, the equipment still can be used, even when the school year is not in session.

“It’s an efficiency of your assets,” Spruill said. “The goal is that once the playground is built and in use, children will be able to play on it during weekends, afternoons or even summers, so that it isn’t wasted.”

Another significant benefit this project could provide to students is the incentive to be more active, specifically during school hours.

Kenny Langley, a member of the Health Task Team, said science has proven children who are more active have increased skills in other areas; If kids spend more energy on the playground, he said he hopes they will listen better and be more productive during school hours.

“Absences have been going down. Referral rates have gone down,” Langley said. “It is what all the research says. If they’re more active, they’re happier and they’re usually well rounded.”

Elizabeth Mosley, principal at Sudduth Elementary, said she is excited about the partnership with MSU.

“We are partnering with the university because they have such great ideas,” Mosley said. “That’s a resource that we can tap into, and we all benefit.”