MPS Celebrates 5 Asphalt-To-Green Space Transformations

Riley Dual Language Montessori School soccer field. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Five Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) campuses are now newly “green and healthy” for students and neighbors to enjoy.

MPS Superintendent Keith P. Posley was joined by several community leaders at Riley Dual Language Montessori School, 2424 S. 4th St., to cut a ribbon on one of the reimagined playspaces.

A total of 19,000 square feet of asphalt was removed and replaced with a mixture of more user and environmentally-friendly features. A small, synthetic soccer field replaced an asphalt one, two outdoor classrooms were installed, a nature play area was created, built-in musical instruments were added, 70 trees were planted, a “traffic garden” was painted on the remaining asphalt, a large underground cistern was installed and a series of educational areas that function as bioswales were installed.

“Young people can go out now and just have an amazing time,” said the superintendent. “This could not occur without the support of our amazing community partners… We just want to say ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.'”

Nonprofit Reflo helps coordinate the cohorts of five schools and supports coordinating funding and support from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, City of Milwaukee, Fund For Lake Michigan and several other sources.

Principal Harry Russo said the students at Riley have yet to have a single outdoor discipline referral since the new space opened. “Our students, they just simply come out and play,” he said of the K3-5th grade school.

“It’s like a whole new world out here,” said one student to the dozens of attendees. “It’s like a nature wonderland.”

“Our children love this space… and that’s what our hard work is all about,” said school board president Marva Herndon.

“Every time it rains in Milwaukee, 760,000 gallons of stormwater are now being captured by these schools, which is a record for Green and Healthy Schools,” said MPS sustainability project manager Heather Dietzel.

The school is located in on the edge of the Baran Park neighborhood and is within a couple blocks of Bay View, the Harbor District and Lincoln Village. The nonprofit Harbor District organization was able to leverage the location to secure additional funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The Burke Foundation is also supporting the Green and Healthy Schools program.

“Milwaukee Public Schools owns over 500 acres of impervious land, which actually presents a great opportunity,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He said the city and county, through the Climate and Equity Plan, hope to see the five annual school projects expanded to 10.

The five schools that received improvements in 2023 were Riley, Frederick J. Gaenslen School (1250 E. Burleigh St.) in the Riverwest neighborhood, Milwaukee German Immersion School (3778 N. 82nd St.) in Nash Park, Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts School (1728 S. 23rd St.) in Muskego Way and Richard Kluge Creative Arts School (5760 N. 67th St.) in the Silver Spring neighborhood.

Each school submits an application to enter the program and must perform some of its own fundraising. For one of the principals of the latest cohorts, that fundraising included taking a pie to the face. All in a day’s work.

Twenty-one schools previously went through the program.

Reflo maintains a project webpage for each school, with dramatic before and after pictures.

Photos

12►