The Green Schoolyard Committee at Grattan Elementary
Greening Grattan
To transform the school grounds into a vibrant and healthy place in which our students are encouraged to play, learn and develop a genuine respect for each other, the community, and the natural environment.
The ultimate goal is to transform the physical condition of the hard surfaces of the schoolyard to a wonderfully rich and natural state to support learning and community-building through gardening and other outdoor activities.
Inclusive Process
Through an inclusive, participatory process, the Greening Committee actively engages the students, parents, teachers and neighbors to assess needs, set goals, design plans, and get our hands dirty in creating a better “outdoor classroom.”
Auspicious Beginning & Progress to Date
Thanks to an initial $15,000 grant from Wells Fargo in December 2004, Grattan has been able to make significant progress in surveying, goal setting, planning, and constructing improvements to the immediate school grounds. In the spring of 2005, we collected input to learn what teachers, parents and students wanted to see on the schoolyard and to help build buy-in from the entire breadth of the Grattan community. In response to community feedback, the Grattan School Community has successfully implemented a number of ambitious projects, including:
the creation of a large outdoor exploration area re-vegetated with a diversity of local native plants;
the planting of a specimen coast live oak in a specially designed ornamental tree well on the upper yard;
the hiring of Rebecca Gould as garden educator, who began working with each classroom in the school in September 2006.
Longer-Term Planning
Our initial surveys yielded wonderful details on what the school community wants in a green schoolyard, e.g, contemplative spaces, more shade, better maintained facilities, and a more natural and aesthetically pleasing schoolyard. From these data as well as the results of a planning process conducted with the assistance of garden education specialists from UC Botanical Garden, we have identified a number of new greening opportunities. Our planning progress positions Grattan to develop a master plan, which would be financed under the recently passed Prop A.
Until Prop A funds begin to flow, the Grattan community is maintaining momentum in its greening efforts to meet the growing community demand for garden education. We are moving forward with plans for a Shrader Street Entry Garden, where the garden education program will be centered (see illustration below). We look forward to working with the school district and other community partners to fulfill our vision for creating and using a vibrant and healthy outdoor classroom.
In-Kind Community Expertise
Our success is due in large part to the in-kind professional support from Grattan parents. Our community has a natural resources specialist, landscape architects, professional gardeners, a botanist, a civil engineer, various construction trades persons, and of course our ecologically-oriented principal, teachers and garden coordinator.
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Help is Needed!
We’d like the Shrader Street Entrance Garden to be ready for the start of the new school year. Please contact Principal Jean Robertson or Greening Committee co-chairs, Amy Breckenridge (626.4515) and Jack Chin (242.9345), if you would like to help install the planters this summer.