Newest green schoolyards at MPS include two microforests

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) now has 31 “green schoolyards,” with the opening of five more this fall. For the first time, two of them feature microforests, a worldwide trend with roots in Japan. And one of the schools is the site of the largest redevelopment— by far—since the first MPS green schoolyards opened as a pilot project in 2018.

At all of the five new green schoolyards, asphalt has been replaced with more sustainable elements. That includes bioswales — depressions that have native plants at the surface and engineered soils below ground to collect and filter rain runoff from — as well as trees, porous pavement, and other ways to manage stormwater. Each redevelopment, though, is designed for its specific site and community.

Milwaukee Sign Language School, which fronts 7900 W. Acacia St., and Morse Middle School for the Gifted and Talented, around the corner at 6700 N. 80th St., represents the largest green schoolyard redevelopment ever for MPS.

The project on the two schools’ shared grounds is the size of four to five typical green schoolyards, with more than 191,000 square feet of asphalt removed. As with all green schoolyards, the makeover not only beautifies the school grounds, it provides natural areas for learning and play, and manages hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater runoff that otherwise could overwhelm Milwaukee’s sewer system and pollute Lake Michigan. Before, much of the schoolyard was covered in asphalt. Now, it’s mostly green.

The schoolyard has a pathway that winds through the grounds and already is being used by neighborhood walkers after school hours. Families and friends are holding picnics in the new green schoolyard, too.

“We are excited that this new space offers many opportunities to our students, families, and community at large,” MSL Assistant Principal in Charge Melissa Maxwell said at the green schoolyard ribbon cutting on October 8 at the MSLSMorse grounds.

The ribbon cutting included tours, activities, and demonstrations, cheers by the Morse squad, and baked goods by students in the culinary program at Harold S. Vincent School of Agricultural Sciences. (More images can be seen on Facebook.)

Morse Principal Tanzanique Carrington, EdD, noted that the redesigned space provides practice space for the school’s teams, and physical education students have a better surface for running outdoors.

“We’re excited about being able to extend the classroom beyond the walls of the building,” Carrington said.

MSL and Morse also have one of two new microforests with native trees and other plantings. Microforests can grow up to 10 times faster than typical tree plantings. That means they can process more carbon, supply more cooling shade, and provide refuge to more animals, birds, and bugs that much sooner. The dense plantings grow faster because they are trying to outcompete their neighbors for light and water.

Forest Home Avenue School, 1516 W. Forest Home Ave., also features a new microforest as part of its new schoolyard redevelopment. Forest Home has three outdoor classrooms, raised garden beds, and an artificial turf soccer field with a cistern below it that manages stormwater. One outdoor classroom has porous brick pavers that are engraved with donor messages.

Greenfield Bilingual School, 1711 S. 35th St., counts a mindfulness garden among its green features, as well as a porous, synthetic- surface soccer field that manages stormwater runoff. Agility pathways, musical instruments, and a nature-play climbing structure encourage students to get active.

Lincoln Avenue School, 1817 W. Lincoln Ave., features a bioswale with a steppingstone path for students to explore. Other features of the green schoolyard are arts programming and music elements, two outdoor classrooms, a soccer field with a cistern beneath it, and a nature- play climbing structure. Nature play areas are for climbing, jumping, and exploring.

Albert Story School, 3815 W. Kilbourn Ave., has a traffic garden for teaching safety, an outdoor classroom, and bench seating made of reclaimed wood for gathering, reading, or studying beside the bioswale. Students have a gaga ball pit and synthetic turf soccer field (with cistern below) for play. Vines were planted to climb on the fence that’s shared with the neighboring business property.

Meanwhile, at Starms Early Childhood Center, the green schoolyard just received an update. The school, at 2616 W. Garfield Ave., now has multiple music stations on the grounds to further engage its K3-K5 students.

The Starms playground was redeveloped in 2019, as part of the first full cohort of green MPS schoolyards. Federal pandemic relief dollars funded the recent upgrades.

At recess on a recent warm October day, students flocked to the new vibraphones and to metal flowers, lily pads, and butterflies that they also could strike with small mallets to produce tones.

The Starms green schoolyard has a unique water theme, with playground slides representing the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic Rivers, “emptying” into a blue permeable surface representing the Milwaukee Harbor, which then feeds into the blue permeable surface of Lake Michigan. Permeable surfaces and the schoolyard’s bioswale, which manage stormwater runoff, have been key in preventing the flooding that used to occur in the school’s basement (and neighbors’ basements) after heavy rains.

Dotting the turf “lake” are three boats that students can climb into. Nodes representing the Great Lakes cities of Milwaukee, Chicago, and Green Bay, as well as cities in Michigan, dot the area. Educational boards teach children about the water cycle, river estuaries, and native fish of Lake Michigan. A track around the playfield for tricycles includes a yellow stretch representing the Hoan Bridge. Natural areas with logs also draw children eager to climb.

“We fully embrace the whole playground,” said Lisa Misky, a K4 teacher at Starms and a member of the school’s Green Team, which helped to develop the schoolyard and oversees it. Misky noted that children learn mathematics concepts while at play—they notice that the logs for climbing are different sizes, as are the boats on the playfield “lake,’ and will sort them by size.

The Starms active green schoolyard is a reminder that more than the environment benefits from these redevelopments. Time spent in nature has been linked to higher academic achievement and improved physical and mental well-being in children.

The Green and Healthy Schools program by the Milwaukee nonprofit organization Reflo is carried out in collaboration with MPS, the City of Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

This year’s redevelopment represents an investment of $8.4-million by those partners and others, including the USDA, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Fund for Lake Michigan, the MPS Foundation, and others. In addition, schools held fundraisers such as penny wars, food and T-shirt sales, and engraved brick donations.

Plans already are under way for the next five schoolyards to go green, taking place in the summer of 2025. Each redevelopment project represents three years of work: conceptual planning in year 1, fundraising in year 2, and design and construction in year 3, followed by ongoing maintenance by the schools.

The MPS schoolyards now in the fundraising phase that will be constructed in 2025 are Humboldt Park, Albert E. Kagel, Riverwest, Samuel Clemens, and Walt Whitman schools.