School Greening
Through TreePeople’s in-house design studio, education and policy teams, and community forestry efforts, we physically change schools to be healthier, greener, and better places to learn and play.
Through partnerships with school communities and districts, we advocate for, design, implement, and manage green schoolyard projects that protect students from extreme heat, air pollution, and other climate-related hazards.
School Greening is where all of TreePeople’s programs intersect.
TreePeople’s school greening goals are to:
- Increase shade canopy and implement other nature-based solutions that manage water, increase biodiversity, and reduce pollution
- Create schoolyards that encourage play and recreation while improving physical and mental health
- Improve environmental literacy and create opportunities for the school community to take action
In 2023 Alone...
10
schools greened
384
trees planted
14,500 sq ft
of asphalt removed
$19.5 million
funding secured
School Greening Map
Project Areas
South Los Angeles
- 112th Street Elementary School - Watts
- 116th Street Elementary - Watts
- 74th Street Elementary - South LA
- 96th Street Elementary School - South Central LA
- Compton Elementary School - Watts
- Florence Avenue Elementary - South LA
- Grape Street Elementary - Watts
- Parmelee Elementary School - South LA
- State Street Elementary - South LA
- Weigand Elementary School - Watts
Southeast Los Angeles
- Middleton Elementary School - Huntington Park
- Miles Avenue Elementary - Huntington Park
- Charles Barrett Elementary School - South Gate
- Independence Elementary - South Gate
- Lillian Street Elementary - South Gate
- Janie P. Abbott Elementary - Lynwood
- Lindbergh Elementary - Lynwood
- Vista High School - Lynwood
School Greening Policy and Advocacy
We advocate at the state and local level for policies and resources to transform schoolyards blanketed in asphalt to vibrant greenspaces. Through partnerships with policymakers, school districts, community leaders, and fellow advocates, we are working to address extreme heat in schools across Southern California with shade trees, biodiverse landscapes, and dynamic outdoor learning spaces and play areas.
More than 2.5 million California K-12 students attend a school with less than 5% tree canopy in the areas where they learn and play. We advocate for equity-focused policies that facilitate the planning, funding and implementation of green schoolyard projects in areas with the most urgent need for cooling shade. The policy solutions we are pushing for today will enable our School Greening design team and our partners in the green schoolyard movement to transform the lives of California students for decades to come.
In recent years our advocacy efforts helped secure $150 Million that financed over 160 school greening projects statewide. We have championed measures to create a statewide Green Schoolyards grant program, and worked with trusted partners over the last year to ensure school greening is an co-equal eligible project for construction and modernization under Proposition 2 – the education bond appearing on the November, 2024 ballot.
We are also currently supporting school greening bond funding efforts at the local level to ensure the momentum continues.
School Greening Education
Our school greening education program provides lessons and activities to schools that are part of school greening implementation projects.
TreePeople uses a holistic approach that integrates environmental awareness and sustainability into the core of the educational experience. This method goes beyond traditional academic subjects, fostering a sense of responsibility towards the environment and encouraging students to become environmentally conscious.
The curriculum emphasizes hands-on learning, outdoor activities, and real-world applications. While each school is being designed and “greened”, students, teachers, and parents will learn the importance and benefits of having a green school and how to maintain it.
School Greening Updates
School Greening Update – Fall 2024
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…
How TreePeople is Greening Schoolyards
In the preface to Claire Latané’s Schools That Heal, she reminds us that “It is hard to make healthy schools. Even in neighborhoods that have plenty of resources, most school environments fall short of supporting students’ mental and physical health and well-being.” TreePeople’s School Greening initiative aims to collaborate with school communities to reimagine how…
Call to Action! Allocate $1B for School Greening in the Proposed Education Bond
No child dreams of playing on scorching hot asphalt. And yet, more than 2.5 million K-12 students in California attend schools with less than 5% tree canopy in their play areas. Not only do green schoolyards enrich learning outcomes and improve mental health, they also provide life saving shade for our students and teachers. We…
TreePeople Celebrates Environmental Education with 2024 Youth Summit
Over 50 years ago, TreePeople began as a testament to the power of youth and we’re continuing to harness that spirit with our environmental education programming.
TreePeople Volunteers Help Bring the Green to Pacoima Middle School
Only feet away from Interstate 5–where hundreds of thousands of vehicles roll down the freeway every day–a team of TreePeople staff and volunteers assembled at Pacoima Middle School on Saturday, October 14th to bring dozens of new trees and much needed green space to the campus. As the temperatures soared to over 90 degrees, concrete…
School Greening History
TreePeople has supported the green schoolyards movement in Los Angeles for over 30 years. From successfully advocating for $150 million in state funds to support these efforts to the planning, design, and implementation work for green campuses to the environmental education materials integrated into the classroom curricula,TreePeople has planted over 30,000 trees on school campuses and implemented large-scale green infrastructure projects, beginning at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima.
TreePeople is keeping its commitment to transformative change and has the momentum to do even more to green our school campuses. We invite you to join us on the journey to create beautiful tree-shaded campuses for students to learn, exercise, and play.
TreePeople received almost $20 million in public and private funding in 2022 and 2023 to transform over two dozen K-12 campuses across LA County school districts into vibrant learning environments. We are hard at work using these resources to plant over 1,000 trees and convert over 423,000 square feet of asphalt at local public schools into verdant landscapes, playing fields, vibrant outdoor learning and reading spaces, and permeable heat-reducing surfaces.