Staff, students work together to spruce-up area in front of Oregon school

OREGON – Landscaping around entrance to the Etnyre gym alongside the Oregon Elementary School was spruced-up just in time for spring April 5, through a collaborative effort between staff and students.

And the project even included some homegrown plants from the elementary school’s little greenhouse.

“The plan is for the flowers that grow in the greenhouse to be transplanted to the exterior of the Etnyre gym area where we currently have bushes,” OES Principal Ryan Huels told the Oregon School Board in March.

Under the direction of two staff members, Lindsey Breeden and Aaron Mendoza, students revamped the area April 5.

Breeden, a health aide at Oregon Elementary School, and Mendoza, a sixth-grade teacher, wrote a grant to the Etnyre Foundation last year to build a small greenhouse adjacent to the elementary school by the Jefferson playground.

And after spending time helping students grow plants and flowers in the greenhouse last year, Huels said, Breeden and Mendoza proposed spruce up areas around the outside of school buildings.

That work began April 5 as students, along with Huels and his daughter, Brynnley, 9, prepared the area and then planted flowers.