CRETE, NE — A new school year fills young students with excitement. Throw in the promise of a new playground... and you send elementary schoolers into a frenzy.

“Oh absolutely... Lots of kids have been hovering around there," Crete Elementary Principal Heather Wendelin said. "They’re actually working on it today, watching which is exciting too. Our hope is that by Thursday it will be ready to go and it will be full of kids.”

Wendelin says the old playground had been there 20 years and the cushion was no longer safe. So they called Crouch Recreation and got working on the new playground.

It includes four or five slides, but that’s not all.

“(It has) lots of rock walls, sliding poles, we have a swing, a merry go round," Wendelin said.  "What we’re really excited about is we have about 15 pieces that are ADA compliant so we’re just excited that all of our kids are included on our playground.”

Wendelin says students are required to wear masks inside, but they can take them off when they go outside. There are no virus restrictions on using playground equipment.

Click here for our story on the school's COVID-19 safety procedures.