Fourth-grader Landon Gonzalez and one of his classmates ran the 5K at the L.A. Chinatown Firecracker Run last year. They plan to do it again in the spring — only this time, they have a new place to train at their school in Westlake.
About 30,000 square feet of asphalt was removed, and 35 trees were planted at Esperanza Elementary School, increasing green space across the campus from 9% to 37%, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Now we have this bright blue track to get in shape,” Gonzalez, a student council member, said recently. “Actually, all the students are healthier because we’ve been running on the track.”
The track is one piece of a major greening project at the Westlake school that students, teachers and community leaders celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The grass, native plants and trees are intended to provide shade and reduce heat on a schoolyard that was previously made up largely of asphalt.
The school also has a new lawn for recreation and instruction, along with stormwater capture features and solar-reflective basketball and handball courts.
“There is something calming for all of us — students and staff — about being surrounded by so much nature on campus,” Principal Brad Rumble said.
Students are already playing kickball games on the lawn, walking on the track together and gathering beneath the new trees, Rumble said. Younger students have been using the outdoor classroom areas to talk and play games, while others have been watching figeater beetles and butterflies visit flowering trees.
“The low hills are a hit,” Rumble said.
Gonzalez and other students have quickly taken to the new spaces.
“I never thought our school would look like this,” he said. “The kids of Esperanza love rolling down the hills. Think about it. We now have fields on Esperanza campus. Friends are sitting in the shade of sycamore trees, they are chitchatting about things.”
The $4.5-million project was completed through a partnership between LAUSD and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, with funding from Cal Fire and the California Natural Resources Agency.
The school district has set a goal of reaching 30% green space at all district schools by 2035.
Similar greening projects are planned or underway at several other schools across Westlake, Koreatown and Pico Union, according to LAUSD. The projects include replacing pavement with trees and landscaping, creating outdoor learning areas and improving playgrounds.
Schools with projects include Commonwealth Elementary School, Hobart Early Education Center, Los Angeles Elementary School, Hoover Elementary School, Plasencia Elementary School, Cochran Middle School, MacArthur Park Elementary School for the Visual and Performing Arts and 10th Street Elementary School, according to the district.
Work at Esperanza took six years to complete and could serve as a model for other school campuses, said Tori Kjer, executive director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust.
“We are pointing the direction towards changing the model for school campuses across LAUSD and other districts,” she said. “It’s too hot for asphalt. Every child in LAUSD deserves access to grass to run on, trees to shade them, birds and butterflies to watch and wonder at.”
Fourth-grader Liliana Guzman, another student council member, remembered watching the work take shape during the previous school year.
“We couldn’t imagine Esperanza being a better place than it already was. But guess what? It turned into a masterpiece,” she said. “Just look around. Where there was asphalt and very little shade, now there is grass and places where you could sit down and talk. And there is much more shade.”
Malxux Gaspar, who teaches a Mayan culture class at Esperanza, also watched the construction from her classroom window. She said students sometimes grew frustrated as the work dragged on and dust forced them to close the windows.
Now, Gaspar said she spends her breaks walking with students through the new green spaces.
“The kids, they come down, they chitchat, they rest and it’s just beautiful,” she said. “It’s an honor to work at this school and in this community.”
Gonzalez already has another idea for the new lawn.
“You changed our lives, and I’ll leave you with a proposal,” he told the crowd. “Movie night right here on the lawn under the stars. How about that?”
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
Hanna Kang writes for the LA Local, a nonprofit news site covering Los Angeles communities.
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