100 principals build gardens in a day at Washington Elementary

At one end of the school courtyard is a giant rock for climbing and an amphitheater with cement benches that look like logs.

At the other end is a flower garden with jasmine star, lantana and Mexican petunias.

In the middle are vegetable gardens and ladybug stools, where students at Booker T. Washington Elementary can sit and play.

And it all came together in just a few hours Thursday morning as 100 principals from across the nation gathered at the school to help build an outdoor classroom.

Many of the students here live in Tampa Park, a low-income apartment complex next door. Of 520 students, 98 percent are on the free or reduced lunch program at the school, which has a grade of "F" from the state.

Most of them have never seen a garden.

"To see and touch and smell and watch it grow before the eyes,'' said Elizabeth Perez, a para-teacher for students with special needs. "It will be so amazing.''

That's the idea behind the outdoor classroom project, said school leaders in Tampa for the annual National Association of Elementary School Principals Convention.

Principals arrived in Tampa a day early to volunteer before their three-day conference at the Tampa Convention Center, where they will participate in seminars and discussions about school reform and increased student achievement.

"It feels so good to be out here,'' said Diane Cargile, the association's former president and a principal at Rio Grande Elementary in Terre Haute, Ind. "I feel like we're really making a difference.''

Sprucing up Washington Elementary's courtyard had long been a goal of Principal Toynita Martinez. The finished product exceeded her wishes.

"It's more than I dreamed,'' she said. "I expected a few picnic tables, some umbrellas.''

Children peered from the windows of the 1925 red brick school, eagerly anticipating their chance to try out the new outdoor classroom.

One girl on her way to the lunch room stopped when she saw the courtyard and started clapping. Another proclaimed to the sweaty and sunburned principals, "It's beautiful.''

Nine-year-old Skylar Swank dug a hole for a tomato plant in garden boxes provided by Growums, a West Palm Beach company that helps teach children about gardening and provides schools with fundraising projects.

Skylar doesn't eat tomatoes, but she'll be watching them grow along with eggplant, cucumbers, green peppers and herbs.

All the landscape materials were donated by Landscape Structures of Delano, Minn.

"The concept is playing to learn,'' said Lynn Pinoniemi, the company's director of marketing.

"It's getting kids outside for active play."

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