Whitman Elementary Community Schoolyard

Every day, more than 400 students settle into desks at Whitman Elementary in the South End neighborhood of Tacoma. Out the windows, there’s an unexpected solution to some of our country’s most pressing challenges: climate change, declining public health, and loneliness. That solution? It’s their schoolyard.

Alongside the PTA and community leaders, TPL transformed this schoolyard into a vibrant space for connection, learning, and play—but not just for the students. Open to the public after school and on weekends, this schoolyard now doubles as a high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of home for 2,189 nearby residents. The refreshed track and field, raised garden beds, greenery, trees, updated playground, and new adult exercise station, all welcome the community and help close the park equity gap in the Puget Sound’s second largest city.

This transformation gives the students at Whitman Elementary daily access to nature-rich play that supports learning, health, and happiness. Opening the schoolyard as a local park, expands that access to nature’s benefits for the whole neighborhood, while boosting Tacoma’s climate resilience. It’s a win-win for people and nature, and an incredible example for the surrounding metropolitan areas to reimagine the schoolyards in their own district.