Wadda Waste - Poor learning Environment ?

There is a long, quad type area between several of our schools buildings, probably about 150 feet in length. This area contains mostly dirt, with a few trees and patches of bermuda grass. Grass will not grow in the dirt, because the grounds people have never, in my 20 years at this school, bothered to do anything with it other than put water on it. Why won't grass grow? Perhaps because the dirt has been trampled by thousands upon thousands of junior high student feet over the years. Or, perhaps, the ground was saturated by some now-banned chemical herbicide eons ago when it was an agricultural field. I don't know, but this dirt is VERY compacted. Unless it is rototilled, nothing will be able to grow there. However, at my school, this area gets flooded on a regular basis, by the custodial/grounds people. Does your school made lots of mud too ?

Flooded dirt and mud making aside, What kind of view does this present to our students and whoever else sees and experiences this unsightly mess? Is this something that promotes a good learning environment for our students? IMO, no. Our students exit classes from the buildings around the mud/standing water, and see an example of how the school feels about them. Dirt. Mud. Standing water with a variety of trash in it. What's your school like ?

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