Los Angeles Unified School District
The Los Angeles School District Board of Education (also called the LAUSD board) oversees the nation’s second-largest school district, serving over half-million students at 1000 campuses throughout LA County. Pulling up the pavement at LAUSD’s mostly asphalt schoolyards — the district manages 6,400 acres countywide — represents the most low-hanging fruit for equitable urban greening across the region on land the public already technically owns.
LAUSD is overseen by a 7-member elected board, with one student member:
Power Dynamics
For decades, the board has dragged its feet on greening efforts. But a major shift has occurred within LAUSD over the last several years as two major strikes — the UTLA teacher strike in 2019 and SEIU educational worker strike in 2023 — have resulted in major organizing around climate and environmental demands. During the same time, two progressives were elected to the board who have made green schoolyards a priority: Jackie Goldberg, who currently serves as LAUSD board president, and Rocio Rivas. In 2022, Goldberg authored a motion which established a new climate office for LAUSD as well as a new schoolyard greening committee. A new superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, seems to be listening to the greening demands, and this could be his way to make his mark in LA.
In 2022, thanks to pressure from advocacy groups, the board approved a resolution by then-president Kelly Gonez to green at least 30 percent of every LAUSD campus by 2035. It’s a threshold that’s currently not met by 600 schools and would start with the highest-need schools. The resolution has not yet been adopted by Carvalho. But new state money for greening is starting to make its way to schools. Green schoolyards are being portrayed as an exciting opportunity for the county’s second-largest landowner to set new standards for urban greening across the region — and do it cost-effectively.
How to Make A Difference
Green schoolyard advocates are a fixture at school board meetings as well as at the new Greening Schools and Climate Resilience Committee, which began meeting in 2023. Current greening proposals that LAUSD is putting forth as part of other campus modernization projects are being heavily criticized because they don’t include enough trees and rely too much on cool pavement as a solution instead of removing the pavement entirely. These projects are also projected to cost more and take longer than similar projects by schools which have received grant funding to green their schoolyards themselves. Advocates are pushing to take these greening decisions out of the facilities department — where innovative greening ideas run up against the district’s archaic policies for construction and development — and put them under the new climate department.
The process of opening schoolyards will also require working more collaboratively with local governments because LAUSD is not under the jurisdiction of the city or county. Those elected officials need to be pressured to form partnerships and make open and green schoolyards a priority in their own districts. Park creation can sometimes be contentious and require years of community input, but schoolyards offer a popular, streamlined pathway towards the same goals. Ensuring that LAUSD schools are the frontline against extreme heat would improve the health and safety of so many families in some of LA’s most vulnerable communities and allow LA to take its biggest step yet to cool down the county.
Groups working on smart, equitable solutions
Angelenos for Green Schools
LA Living Schoolyard Coalition
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT)
Reclaim Our Schools