Community-School Parks:
September 2008
Three Steps Closer to Making CSPs a Reality
The movement to convert asphalt-covered schoolyards into Community-School Parks continues to advance. A CSP working group of city, school and community representatives is moving closer to issuing its first report on implementing motions passed by the City Council and LAUSD School Board. Meanwhile, People for Parks has contracted experts to ensure that CSPs effectively treat storm-water runoff, and an L.A. City Councilwoman has endorsed votes by two schools in her district to become pilot sites.
“People for Parks has played a major role in the working group,” said PFP Vice President John Perez. “ The report will almost certainly define the selection process for CSP sites, explore ways to finance the pilot projects, and list possible pilot sites.”
PFP recently received a $50,000 grant funded by Prop. 84, which voters passed to improve water quality in the L.A. River. Consultant Carrie Sutkin said a PFP design team including a fluvial-geomorphologist met with school staffs at Trinity Street and 28 th Street elementaries, and is designing pilot programs that incorporate best practices for treating storm-water runoff before it is released into the sewers or the aquifer below.
City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes Trinity and 28th Street, recently endorsed CSPs. Both schools' site-councils voted this spring to join the pilot program. Site-councils include principals, assistant principals, and representatives of parents and the teachers' union, UTLA.
Contact PFP Consultant Sutkin for more information. |
