Celebrating Pacoima Middle School’s Brand New Living Schoolyard
In late September, our School Greening team joined Pacoima Middle School to celebrate their brand new Living Schoolyard, a project led by TreePeople in partnership with LAUSD, SLA, and the California Natural Resources Agency. Principal Garcha shared her pride in seeing the Schoolyard come to life after 8 years of planning. LAUSD greening champions, Northwest Superintendent Dr. David Baca, Chief Eco Sustainability Officer Christos Chrisyliou, and District 6 School Board Member Kelly Gonez, joined her in giving remarks and planting a ceremonial oak tree to mark the occasion. A student dance troupe performed for the crowd, and volunteers closed the day by planting the final 27 trees across the yard.
Over 100 students returned with our School Greening team in early November to install the final 300 climate appropriate and native shrubs in the understory. Students enthusiastically dug planting holes, lugged water buckets, and mulched the soil. As students tucked in the new plants, they took turns naming each one. When the transition bell rang, one student reluctantly gathered their shovel and gloves and promised to visit the next day to see how the new residents settled into their new home.
As the young trees and shrubs grow into maturity, the yard will transform from an exposed stretch of mostly bare asphalt along I-5 to a shadier, greener, vibrant space for students to learn and play. The greening process replaced 14,000 square feet of asphalt with 107 trees, bird and pollinator habitat gardens, outdoor learning spaces with benches, and a shade tree perimeter along the freeway to reduce noise and air pollution. These changes will benefit all those who attend, work in, and live near Pacoima Middle School as well as the local ecosystem and waterways.
CA Voters Chose Green Schoolyards at the Ballot Box
Californians voted to fund more green schoolyards at the state and local level. Proposition 2 will designate $7 billion dollars for much needed school construction and modernization. These funds can be used to build outdoor learning environments and nature-based landscapes, which will shade and protect students across the state from the impacts of extreme weather in a changing climate.
In Los Angeles, the passage of Measure US will dedicate $1.25 billion explicitly for green schoolyard transformations in the LAUSD school district. These funds will expand capacity for the district to collaborate with community greening partners and accelerate their ambitious pursuit of 30% green space on all campuses by 2035.
Green California Schools and Higher Education Summit
Last week, the School Greening team took the stage at the Green California Schools and Higher Education Summit in Pasadena. They presented on engaging students, parents and teachers in the Green Schoolyard design process, and developing an original School Greening curriculum. The conference was an opportunity to share TreePeople’s leadership in the Green Schoolyard movement with sustainability professionals, school districts and education innovators across the state and compare notes on strategies for bringing our schools into a greener future.
School Greening Education Coordinator Saira Singh and Policy Associate Mary Hillemeier (pictured) presented with Green Infrastructure Project Manager Eric Wilson at the Green California Schools and Higher Education Summit last week.
School Greening Education Coordinator, Saira Singh, pilots the new School Greening Curriculum with 4th graders at Independence Elementary in November
More on the School Greening Curriculum in the next School Greening Quarterly update. For more information on our current school greening projects, check out the School Greening page of our website.