Students put the best face on school grounds

Published 11:04 am Friday, October 31, 2008

It’s a project that began with simple aspirations.

The front gardens at Orchard Heights Elementary consisted of dirt, gravel and little else.

Heather Mroz-Spoon’s fourth- through sixth-graders wanted a grander entrance to their school. The work began last spring with 30 minutes a day of moving gravel to the back parking lot to help fill potholes.

From there, they tapped others to assist with the project — the city of Tacoma donated its TAGRO mix and potting soil products —before contacting Lowe’s, which awarded the school a grant to spruce up the area and came by last week to work with students and faculty.

“We had kind of a blank slate,” said Don Hill, a live-nursery specialist at the Port Orchard Lowe’s. “The kids cleaned it up, but didn’t know where to go from there.”

Hill said he wanted to avoid putting more work on the district’s facility operations workers, and selected plants, such as the Fat Albert Blue Spruce, that require little maintenance. He estimated that half of the school participated in the project.

Besides creating a more aesthetically pleasing view with different heights in the garden and various colors, Hill said the area also is safer.

“It’s a grammar school,” Hill said. “You have expert rock throwers.”

The small rocks are gone, and there now are brick paths leading through busy walkways and up to the flag. It’s a tradition at Orchard Heights for students to raise and lower the flag each day, and Hill notes that the brick path gives the students “a proper place to fold the flag each day.”

The three-day project lasted from Oct. 22-24 and Hill estimates it cost $1,700-$1,800, which was more than the $1,200 budget.

“We exhausted our fund and then some,” Hill said, laughing.

Several students said it was a worthwhile project. Sixth-grader Jake Hancoff said he initially scoffed at the idea because he thought the grounds were too large to clean.

But Hancoff, who often found himself covered in mud after working on the project in the rain, is glad he was wrong about getting the work finished.

“It makes me proud,” he said.

Fourth-grader Jerrid Erickson-Pope said the project has given him the same feeling. “I’m much more experienced now,” he said. “I garden for my grandmother all the time.”

The project coincided with “Character Counts Week” at Orchard Heights.

Teachers Kelly Marsik and Sue Witt headed up the project this year.

Marsik said the core values that are reinforced during the week include being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, fair, caring and showing good citizenship. Burley Glenwood and Sunnyslope Elementary schools also took part in the project.

Students participated in several activities throughout the week. One was “Eggceptional Day,” where students had to treat an egg as if it were their own child. Marsik said one student asked if he could eat the egg before being reminded of its significance.

Marsik said the week reinforces the values she tries to teach students throughout the school year.