{"id":20443,"date":"2025-08-19T11:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treepeople.org\/?p=20443"},"modified":"2025-08-19T11:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:10:06","slug":"school-greening-summer-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treepeople.org\/2025\/08\/19\/school-greening-summer-update\/","title":{"rendered":"School Greening Summer Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As school greening work heats up, surface temps cool down<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that as part of our CAL FIRE grants, we are required to take surface temperatures before, during, and after construction for all project sites? Our team visits sites prior to construction with the design in hand, focusing on any surface that will be altered, such as asphalt, bare soil, artificial turf, concrete, and grass turf. All of these data points are uploaded and shared with CAL FIRE. Some temperatures reach the triple digits even on mild days. Air temperatures are recorded, as well as the various surface temperatures. As seen in the image<\/a>, even decomposed granite (DG) can reach close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on a 75-degree day. Asphalt<\/a> can surpass 130 degrees. When we are finished removing more than 380,000 square feet of asphalt and planting grass fields, mulch, native plants, and shade trees on 17 campuses for our CAL FIRE Green Schoolyards grants, we can’t wait to return and measure the difference in post-construction surface temperatures!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynwood Construction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In May, SALT\u2014the landscape architecture firm designing the three school greening sites we are managing in Lynwood Unified School District\u2014produced final plans for Vista High School and Lindbergh Elementary School. Construction at Vista and Lindbergh began in July, with the removal of asphalt and concrete. As the work progresses, we will hold school community planting days to add more than 25 trees at Vista and more than 40 trees at Lindbergh, in addition to several hundred native plants at each site. Follow our progress on the Vista High School<\/a> and Lindbergh Elementary School<\/a> webpages. Work at Abbott Elementary (no, not that Abbott), will begin shortly as well. More than 20 trees will be planted around the campus, in addition to several cooler, greener spaces between buildings which will receive a bounty of native shrubs and groundcovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cedarlane Academy Demolition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

School starts extra early in Hacienda La Puente Unified School District. With a tight timeline, SLA\u2014the contractor hired to help reconstruct the elementary and middle school courtyards at Cedarlane Academy\u2014made quick work of demolishing more than 10,000 square feet of asphalt in the last two weeks of summer break. Students returned on Wednesday, August 6th, to a vastly reimagined landscape. While much work remains to be done, the first steps show a dramatic transformation of this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kicking Off 11 LAUSD schools<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of our \u201cCreating Cool Schools in Southern CA\u201d grant from CAL FIRE, TreePeople\u2019s Green Infrastructure team has been hard at work finalizing the designs for 11 LAUSD campuses. These schools include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n