The Space to Grow projects bring new challenges for in-house maintenance teams that are responsible for maintaining the new schoolyards. The tasks go beyond repairing and mowing turf areas, clearing snow and repairing playground equipment.
“Green infrastructure is kind of a new thing for a lot of people, so there’s a learning curve,” Russell says. “There are also capacity issues for schools to be able to maintain these spaces. We started off by trying to get people to volunteer to help with the weeding, and that was going great at a lot of schools. But some schools were struggling to get on top of that because they don’t have the capacity to take that on. With the turnover that happens, it was difficult for us to get out ahead and make sure we’re able to do that.”
To assist with garden maintenance, Openlands is working with the district to keep the schoolyards healthy and revitalized by bringing in third parties to help.
“Out of this, we were able to work with CPS to bring on an organization that specializes in green infrastructure to be able to weed a native garden and not accidentally pull up the wrong thing or just weed whack the whole thing,” Russell says. “They can also help with some of the green infrastructure elements like artificial turf fields.”
The partnership has taken Space to Grow to another level, Russell says.
“It has completely changed the game,” she says. “The schools can still be stewards of their schoolyards, but it’s not as much of a burden as it is a resource for them to learn and grow.”
Not only have the Chicago Public Schools benefited from the Space to Grow program —including more than 10,000 students and over 900 teachers over years — the public is also taking advantage of the more than 1.4 million square feet of area that has been transformed.
“The spaces are accessible to the general public, and the schoolyards provide a welcoming space for community activity,” Hansen says. “A shared space in nature where people can sit, relax, play, exercise or gather with friends has immense benefits to the fabric of a community.”
Despite the success of funding upgrade projects so far, finding money for future projects will be a challenge.
“There is only so much funding each year,” Hansen says. “It would be great to expand this program to additional schools with additional funding.”
The Space to Grow partners plan to keep the momentum going locally, nationally and internationally. Zhang says that delegations from abroad have visited Chicago to learn more about Space to Grow, and other U.S. districts have adopted similar programs.
An exciting next step for the district and partners is to include a high school in the next round of schoolyard designs.
“The idea is to keep going because there’s no shortage of needs when it comes to critical health-promoting infrastructure like schoolyards that are also community parks outside school hours,” Zhang says. “And we’re thinking of some of the biggest climate change challenges and how that overlaps with issues like redlining and other land-use policies that were harmful to communities now experiencing disproportionate burdens of climate change. There are just so many opportunities to make sure that these spaces are reflective of their needs in a way that they reap the benefits because in Chicago, like many other cities, that just has not been the case for a really long time.”
Dave Lubach is the executive editor for the facilities market. He has 10 years of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues.
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