Dearborn — Embracing the sunny weather on a day dedicated to the planet, students at Dearborn’s Salina elementary and middle school campuses scurried around new play equipment and planted flowers on Wednesday as part of an Earth Day event and part of a broader “green” initiative in the state’s third-largest school district.
The campuses celebrated the completion of two “nature-themed” playgrounds, which feature swing sets, climbing nets and hutches constructed from logs. A playground for the intermediate school just west of the 100-year-old building was completed last week, while a kindergarten playscape was finished in June 2025. The newest playground has yet to open.
“You guys are becoming not only an example for all of Dearborn Public Schools, but you’re really setting the example for all of Michigan, for all of the country,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who interacted with students.
Reversing harms caused by heavy industry has been a priority of Hammoud’s administration, he said in remarks to students and staff on the Salina campus’ yard. The city has taken steps such as installing air quality monitors in the south end and restricting truck routes. Hammoud also praised Salina students for setting an example for being environmental activists in small and large ways.
The neighborhood where the school stands on Salina Street sits near an industrial park. Factory stacks of steel company Cleveland-Cliffs rise in the backdrop to the west, across from freight rail tracks.
The nature-themed playscapes are part of a broader effort by Dearborn schools to add more gardens, a prairie, trees, and outdoor learning spaces for students.
Salina schools are among four participating in Dearborn Public Schools’ Green Schoolyards Initiative, which the district’s website said are schoolyards that have ecologically beneficial features including trees, rain gardens and other landscaping that are also meant to give students opportunities for learning, and socializing and playing.
Hanan Hussein, a middle school science teacher who’s taught at Salina for 13 years, said she teaches her sixth graders not only about environmental and health concerns such as litter, tree cover and how overdevelopment affects water flow, but how those problems have shown up in south Dearborn specifically. She took her students on a walk so they could see areas of concern for the environment and public health.
Hussein said her students also are starting to understand how Dearborn’s south side has historically struggled more than other wealthier areas of the city from environmental and and health issues of heavy industry and disparities in public resources devoted to the area.
“They’ve started to open their eyes up to that,” she said.
Some children had tables with presentations about the problems they’ve seen in their neighborhood. Hammoud visited a table presented by sixth-grade classmates Aqeel Ahmed, Nawar Ali and Noah Ali, who told the mayor they’ve noticed a lot of pollution, too many broken tree branches littering the streets and how pavement instead of green spaces leads to more standing water and flooding.
They suggested limiting the hours factories can be open, having city staff dedicated to cleaning up trash and tree branches, and adding more rain gardens to help counteract flooding and runoff because they can hold a lot of water.
“There’s has always been a lot of pavement, and we need to use all the space to add more greenery to our community. It makes it look better; it makes it feel more positive,” Aqeel said.
The Earth Day event at Salina was one of several across Metro Detroit on Wednesday. Some Democratic lawmakers introduced a “green” amendment that would enshrine the right to a clean, healthy environment for all citizens.
In Detroit, state officials celebrated that Michigan’s recycling rate climbed to a new high again in 2025 with an event. But the rate continues to remain below the national rate, according to new data from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
jcardi@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Dearborn’s Salina schools celebrate new playgrounds for Earth Day
Reporting by Julia Cardi, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
