O’Melveny Elementary School held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new green space Tuesday, Sept. 16, that encompasses 12,700 square feet and will provide students with a cooler place to play during the summer heat; however, the space won’t be open immediately due to some construction issues that need to be addressed.
Parents and students who stayed after school were welcomed by Principal Henry Vidrio in the schoolyard, right in front of the new grass field that had been more than a year in the making. He was accompanied by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board Member Kelly Gonez, LAUSD Chief Eco-Sustainability Officer Christos Chrysiliou, San Fernando Mayor Mary Mendoza and Councilmembers Victoria Garcia and Patty Lopez.
The project was funded by a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Green Schoolyards grant – approximately $500,000 – and developed with the assistance of the Hollywood Beautification Team and the LA Beautification Team (LABT). Workers with the LABT also planted eight trees in the field that will provide shade when they mature.
“The field will allow for a lot of physical and social play,” Vidrio said. “Most of our yard is covered in asphalt, and when it’s hot like today, the asphalt increases the temperature by at least 20 degrees, so most of the time on hot days like this, boys and girls can’t play outside. It burns their soles and it’s not healthy. But here they have a green space for them to run and be safe.”
However, a look around the field shows that the terrain is somewhat uneven, to say the least. There are small pockets within the field where there is no grass, but sand, and other areas where the grass appears to have sunken into the ground.
Vidrio told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol that when they initially laid down the grass, some of the soil was contaminated, so it had to be repatched with healthy grass. As for the spots with the sand, he said it was to help the grass grow more evenly and separate so that it doesn’t cluster.
Although the plan was to open the field on the day of the ceremony, Vidrio said they’ll likely hold off for another couple of weeks while they fix the remaining issues.
Gonez also touched on the importance of having grassy fields on LAUSD campuses, adding that it’s a human right for students to have access to shade and green spaces in schools, particularly in communities affected by extreme heat, like the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
“We see here the results of this project, where we know students will have a place to play and run … but we also know there’s mental health benefits, physical health benefits and learning benefits from green spaces,” Gonez said. “I’m just so excited that our students will benefit from this.”
Chrysiliou spoke with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol, saying that the project started to take shape last year, with LABT taking up the duties of planning, design and construction. The latter phase took three months to excavate the asphalt and replace it with the grassy field.
And this green space project is just one of many that LAUSD has that are in the works.
“We have 33 projects with Cal Fire that were awarded to different greening partners, LABT being one of them,” Chrysiliou said. “Actually, they finished the first one [here at O’Melveny Elementary], so we’re happy to be out here to celebrate with them the completion of the first school [green space project] out of the Cal Fire grant.
“For us, developing green spaces and planting trees provides spaces for children to play … without being exposed to the hot conditions that we have,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to having more green spaces in our schools.”
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