Extending hours at NYC school playgrounds would cost $49M per year, report says

Hundreds of schoolyards could stay open on weekends and for three hours after school ends on weekdays if New York City officials were willing to pay $49 million a year in overtime wages, according to a report from the city's Independent Budget Office on Thursday.

The extended hours would be a lifeline for parents who already struggle to find space to take their children to play. The report comes just weeks after Mayor Eric Adams proposed expanding hours for just 11 schoolyards in his latest State of the City address, saying the move would benefit 20,000 people.

“ We currently have at least two public schools, P.S. 166 and P.S. 84, where children usually go to play, which are constantly locked on the weekends,” said Cynthia Tibbs, president of the Tenant Association for the West Side Urban Renewal Brownstones.

Opening school playgrounds outside of school hours would require custodians to unlock and lock the spaces — a simple but costly job, according to the budget office. The office estimated it would cost taxpayers an extra $243,000 per weekend day and $91,000 per weekday to extend the hours.

The report came at the request of City Councilmember Gale Brewer of the Upper West Side, who is pushing legislation to require the city education department to open school playgrounds for public access during after-school hours and on weekends.

There are 945 school buildings with outdoor yards in the city, and 268 are already opened as part of an existing city program. The budget office's report found another 676 school buildings with outdoor yards that could potentially be opened outside school hours. Brewer’s office commissioned a digital map outlining all the schoolyards where hours could be extended.

The city could save money by sharing the work of keeping the schoolyards open across school staff to avoid paying custodial staff overtime, though the budget office's report did not detail how much.

Brewer said the demand for playgrounds and open space is evident from the number of families who bring their kids to playgrounds in the city's Schoolyards to Playgrounds program.

“Going to the park is a schlep. You're away from your home, you have to deal with other problems that you're trying to address,” she said. “It's so convenient to be able to step out of your doorstep, go down the street, around the corner, because don't forget there are so many schools in our areas, at least in Manhattan.”

About 76% of the 677 buildings with outdoor yards that could be opened for play space are in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, according to the report. The spaces could serve many students who need to travel an average distance of nearly one-third of a mile to reach the nearest park.