Children at a Prince George’s County public elementary school in Chillum have a new outdoor classroom and garden this spring, five years in the making.
Wildcat Way, named for the mascot of Cesar Chavez Dual Spanish Immersion Elementary School, includes picnic tables, permeable paving, gravel paths, compost bins, raised beds, and newly planted native trees and perennials. Areas have been planted to grow into wildflower meadows.
At a ribbon-cutting June 15, Principal Laura Guzman said “Today we celebrate not only what’s been built, but the generations of learning, discovery, community that will grow here because of it.”
Parents and volunteer master gardeners from Hyattsville will help water and maintain the space this summer, once the contractor who installed the plants has helped get them established, according to Kate Wunderlich, a parent at the school and volunteer leader of the project.
Hyattsville artist Wenceslao Almazan-Romero, also a parent at the school, designed outdoor signage…