A design for Akron’s first Community Schoolyard that includes features students suggested was unveiled May 27 at Jennings Community Learning Center.
Akron Public Schools joined with Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that works to connect the public with the outdoors, for the project. They brought together students, teachers and neighbors for ideas on what the schoolyard should look like. The schoolyard is currently called “The Bowl.”
The schoolyard will have a playground and soccer field while also incorporating features that manage stormwater, reduce urban heat and perk up the area.
School board members, parents and elected officials were at the unveiling to hear how students participated in the design.
Science teacher Zion Johnston was a part of the process, along with seventh-grade students he brought on board.
“Working with them has been fantastic. It’s something for me to learn and be able to teach to my other students, classes; they taught me a lot,” Johnston said.
Johnston and his students budgeted plans and put designs together. Each student was paired up and created design boards that were displayed in the cafeteria for the rest of the audience to see Wednesday.
“I was really glad to design for the future,” said Amora Allen-Hardy.
Santiago De Leon Flores said, “I was really excited to be a part of this group and bring the community in together.”
As a community park, the space will bring outdoor amenities to the North Hill neighborhood while supporting environmental sustainability and neighborhood resilience, Trust for Public Land says.
Lawshawna Grimes, seventh grade principal at Jennings, was impressed with the experience.
“The students had to learn the science behind open and closed questions and how to use unbiased data,” she said.
What will the community schoolyard look like?
This project is part of Trust for Public Land’s Community Schoolyards initiative, which converts schoolyards into green, accessible spaces.
“When I saw this, I thought wow, this is environmental justice at work to transform urban spaces. It spoke to the work that I do to transform spaces that could become assets in the community that can help folks who live around it,” said Carla Chapman, the district’s chief of community and strategic engagement.
Tait Ferguson, an associate partner of TPL, said that aside from money the school has raised for the project, the Cleveland Soccer foundation will add donations for the field.
The new and improved space will have a soccer field, bleachers, a walking trail, paved courtyard with tables and a mural wall.
Groundbreaking for the new field is expected to be in May 2027.
What is Trust for Public Land?
The national nonprofit works with communities to create parks and protect public land. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,504 parks, trails, schoolyards, and outdoor places, raised $112 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected nearly 10 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jennings CLC unveils design for Akron’s first Community Schoolyard
Reporting by Alisson Toro-Lagos, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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