Breathe SoCal, an LAUSD greening partner, hosted a beautification event (BUL 5761) at Norwood Elementary School on Saturday, March 18th. Fifty(!) volunteers from the local school communities got together to pull weeds, plant 200 California native and drought tolerant plants, and paint twelve cement planters around the school.

Breathe Southern California has roots in Southern California since 1903 and has delivered outcome-driven programs supporting lung health and air quality improvement for underserved populations for 120 years. Breathe Southern California’s mission is to promote clean air and healthy lungs through research, education, advocacy, and technology. BlueSky LA is a partnership between Breathe Southern California and Climate Cents to improve air quality, mitigate heat, and reduce climate emissions of the greater Los Angeles by the 2028 Olympics and beyond through local community-based volunteer projects. The current sponsors of the program: South Coast Air Quality District and Tesla Motors.

Thank you to the Norwood Elementary School Community and Breathe SoCal for greening the school!

LAUSD opened the new Nature Explore garden at Gledhill Early Education Center (EEC) on March 3, 2023. The total site area improvement is over 12,000 square feet which includes areas for: movement and music, balance and climbing, messy materials, gardening, and nature art. To learn more about the LAUSD Nature Explore gardens at EECs, visit the ECED website.

LAUSD's Gerardo Salazar, Administrator for the Office of Outdoor and Environmental Education, and Christos Chrysiliou, Director of Architecture & Engineering, presented to the Green Schoolyards  America's Community of Practice for Schoolyard Forests on February 21, 2023. They shared how LAUSD is the pioneer in Outdoor and Environmental Education for K-12 Districts and the strides LAUSD is taking to meet the 30% greening goal. See the presentation here and learn more about the Green Schoolyards  America here.

LAUSD Students and members of the Sustainability Initiatives Unit participated in a tree planting day with local partner TreePeople at the 96th Street Elementary School on January 29th. The tree planting day was supported by a generous grant from the California Strategic Growth Council's Transformative Climate Communities program. The new trees will help provide shade at the 96th Street Elementary School's playground, providing children with a cooler place to play and learn, while also lowering the surrounding air temperature during the hottest months of the year. Learn more about TreePeople and the Transformative Climate Communities program. ​

TreePeople, in collaboration with California ReLeaf and the support of LAUSD, had the pleasure of working with Valley Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (VOCES) Magnet (6-12 grade) to plant 21 trees on their campus. These drought tolerant trees will provide much needed shade at the school. The planting event occurred on January 28, 2023 with numerous volunteers coming from the community and students from the school.

TreePeople also introduced the students to their Generation Earth program. Generation Earth is an environmental education program dedicated to helping students explore waste, water and forestry topics in a fun and engaging way. The team works directly with the teacher and students on a project that is most important to them.