Cyndi Loza

Stead Elementary School students and faculty will show off a new shade structure on their playground Tuesday.

The new shade structure and Outdoor Education Center will be used by teachers for science experiments and projects, including testing soil pH, art projects such as tie dye and other learning activities designated for the outdoors. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at the school at 10 a.m. on Tuesday with Reno Councilman Dwight Dortch and Washoe County School District officials.

“We wanted an area outside where we could do some science experiments and students could sit and do some writing outside, and we didn’t have a place like that,” said Susan McNeall, a Stead sixth-grade teacher who helped spearhead the project.

Stead’s playground features basketball courts, playground structures, a life-size chess board with proportionate chess pieces and other educational tools such as a painted United States map. Plans for the playground include trees, new playground structures and additional basketball hoops.

Donations for the purchase and installation of the shade structure came through a community effort by Bob Lissner of Lifestyle Homes who donated $9,000, an anonymous local developer donated $9,000, Hidden Valley Manufacturing donated $4,000 and the Ward Four North Valleys Neighborhood Advisory Board donated $9,000.