For years, PS 246 held phys-ed classes and recess in a concrete lot behind the school, but on July 24, construction workers broke ground at the school at 2641 Grand Concourse school to make way for a brand new student-designed playground. It’s slated for completion this December.

The new playground will include park space, a track, convertible tennis and basketball courts, an artificial turf field, game tables, a stage, and a drinking fountain so students don’t have to run back inside.

Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit that develops new community playgrounds for schools and neighborhoods through its City Spaces program, worked in conjunction with Deutsche Bank to award the school a $650,000 grant for the state-of-the-art project. The Robin Hood Foundation and Deutsche Bank, who helped build the school’s library 15 years ago, recommended PS 246 for the program. Trust for Public Land was looking to build playgrounds for 25 schools around the city and said they were pleased with PS 246’s progress.

One class was chosen from each of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades to be involved in the design process. Students met with Trust officials and architects during the day and after school, creating construction paper models of their ideal playground.

“Before work began in the yard, it was pretty much a parking lot,” said Kritsalak Tangsuwan, a student representative.

Surveys were sent to all PS 246 students asking them to rate their favorite playground equipment — the top picks would be included in the final design. According to gym teacher Emily Sanderson, who played a lead role in the project, many students requested a splash pool or a rock-climbing wall, but school officials vetoed those for safety reasons.

For the student designers, it was all about teamwork.

“When we had meetings, we would have to say what we liked about one idea and what we didn’t,” said sixth-grader Kevin Fich. “We wanted to include things that would benefit the yard after we left the school.”

Around the PS 246 campus, anticipation is mounting and construction appears to be on schedule.

“Students have been very patient.” Sanderson said. “They love looking out the windows and watching the daily progress. The yard is for them. It was important we include the things they cared most about. Part of the idea was if they had a sense of ownership in the yard, they would take care of it.”

Mentor Group Recruits Volunteers

Technology-based youth mentor program, iMentor, a city-based nonprofit, is now recruiting volunteers for their 2006-07 program.

Founded in the fall of 1999, iMentor works to improve the lives of teens from low-income neighborhoods by approaching youth mentoring and education through technology. E-mail communication is what drives iMentor. With today’s technology, e-mail can be accessed almost anywhere, allowing adults to mentor students even when their schedules won’t allow them to volunteer in the traditional fashion.

This year, the company is working with 235 students from New York schools, including many from the Bronx. Students are placed with a mentor based on shared career goals or personal interest. They interact via e-mail, one-on-one meetings and job or classroom visits. Recruiting and training volunteers from a variety of professional fields enables students to work with, and observe closely, careers that they otherwise may never have come in contact with.

To learn how to become a mentor, visit the iMentor Web site at www.imentor.org/get_involved/be_mentor.php or call (212) 461-4330 for more information.