With funding from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (Cal Fire) Urban and Community Forestry Green Schoolyards Planning Grant Program, CWH led a community-led and nature-based green schoolyard design process at Primary Academy for Success and seven other Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) campuses. Located in the North Hills community in the San Fernando Valley, Primary Academy for Success’ proposed green schoolyard project addresses the urgent need for shaded green spaces that provide students with nature-based play opportunities that support their learning and mental and physical health.
As part of our school community-led design process, CWH partnered with Nature for All, a community-based organization in CWH’s ReDesignLA program that has longstanding community trust across the San Fernando Valley, and Herrera Environmental Consultants, which provided civil engineering and landscape design services. In partnership with LAUSD, CWH’s project team developed 50 percent conceptual designs for Primary Academy for Success’ green schoolyard project that reflect the needs and priorities Nature for All identified with the school community.
The proposed green schoolyard design focuses on asphalt removal and the addition of shade trees in student accessible areas of the campus. The design includes two outdoor learning areas, native habitat gardens and trails, a micro-forest, and two nature-based play areas.
Project Benefits
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About the Project
CBO Partner
Nature For All is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that everyone in the Los Angeles region has equitable access to nature and its wide range of benefits. Nature For All advocates for policies and programs that will: Protect the mountains and rivers in our area, to conserve resources and be more climate-resilient; Create more natural spaces such as parks and bike paths in our historically underserved neighborhoods; Connect people and public lands through more trails and other outdoor recreational opportunities, to improve public health. Since joining ReDesignLA as a mentee in 2022, Nature For All has hosted several engagement and outreach events relating to active transportation, outdoor equity, and school greening. Through an extensive project identification process, Nature for All narrowed in on its communities of focus in the San Fernando Valley and identified a critical need for school greening projects at several LAUSD school campuses. Nature for All's staff have since built trusting relationships with both Primary Academy for Success and Rosa Parks Learning Center's school communities and partnered with CWH on a Cal Fire Green Schoolyards Planning Grant in 2024. Students from Primary Academy for Success, which teaches students from TK until 2nd grade, attend Rosa Parks Learning Academy for 3rd through 5th grade.
As part of the Cal Fire planning grant, Nature for All led school community education, outreach, and engagement activities at Primary Academy in support of a school community-led nature-based design process that reached 50 percent design. Throughout the design process, Nature for All engaged students, parents, and teachers using surveys, student worksheets, walking tours with parents, tabling during student drop-off and pick-up, nature trips, in-classroom activities, and presentations at parent coffees and staff meetings. To meaningfully engage Primary Academy’s school community, Nature for All’s staff collaborated with two of its Community Ambassadors to build relationships and carry out school community engagement events. Nature for All’s Community Ambassadors regularly communicated with parents before, during, and after events and were critical in building relationships with parents and building project support from the very onset of the project’s development.
Nature for All's staff presenting Primary Academy's three conceptual design alternatives to a 1st grade class.
Primary Academy's 1st graders lined up to look at the conceptual design alternatives.
Parent filling out a survey at Nature for All's tabling event during school drop-off.
Nature for All's staff presenting Primary Academy's three conceptual design alternatives to a 1st grade class.
Project Progress
Conceptual Design
During the Spring of 2024, Nature for All partnered with CWH and Herrera to host a series of community engagement events and gather initial design input from students, teachers, and parents at Primary Academy for Success. The series included teacher and staff meetings, parent presentations and workshops, and a mapping activity with students. These events allowed Nature for All to educate the school community about school greening, introduce CWH’s Cal Fire grant, and gather extensive input to inform Herrera’s three conceptual design alternatives. This process allowed Nature for All and Herrera to meaningfully engage students, parents, and teachers in the conceptual design process and ensure that the school’s needs, priorities, and vision are reflected in the green schoolyard’s design moving forward.
Image Credit: Herrera Environmental Consultants
30% Design
At the 30% design phase, Herrera incorporated the most popular design elements from each alternative and developed detailed civil and landscape design documents that incorporated additional school community feedback received on the conceptual design. CWH and Herrera also worked with PSOMAS, Pinnacle, and LAUSD staff to identify the location of underground utilities, conduct soil and asphalt testing, and perform other site analyses. During this process, Herrera adjusted the schoolyard’s design to reflect what is technically feasible.
Image Credit: Herrera Environmental Consultants
50% Design
From 30 to 50% design, Herrera incorporated CWH and LAUSD’s technical feedback on the green schoolyard design and expanded the design to include more technical details. The technical changes incorporated into the final 50% design include, but are not limited to, demolition plans, civil engineering sheets that assess grading and drainage, irrigation plans, proposed plant palettes, and a drafted construction budget. Herrera also created an updated design exhibit for Nature for All to share with Primary Academy’s school community. In February of 2025, Nature for All shared project updates and the updated design exhibit by tabling at school pick-up and drop-off, presenting at a parent coffee, and via large posters displayed at the front of the school.
Image Credit: Herrera Environmental Consultants
Project Photos
View of main schoolyard area with various games painted on asphalt.
View of wisdom tree area.
View of two picnic tables and a small patch of grass inside of the TK-Kindergarten play area.
View of main schoolyard area with various games painted on asphalt.