On Aug. 14, about 400 students will return to Pajaro Middle School, more than a year after flood waters forced the campus to close. This includes seventh-graders who spent their first middle school year at a different school.
On Friday, several workers were continuing to restore the damaged buildings, which also have been repainted.
Nearby, a small group of young people was planting trees and native plants in an effort to beautify the campus and add a measure of shade to the community.
The campus has been closed since the Pajaro River levee breach in March 2023 that flooded the town of Pajaro and and washed through numerous classrooms, the library, office and other parts of Pajaro Middle School.
The work was performed by Watsonville Wetlands Watch’s (WWW) Climate Corps Leadership Institute (CCLI).
During the year-long, paid internship program, high school students from Watsonville and Pajaro Valley High Schools and from Ceiba College Preparatory Academy gain hands-on experience in urban forestry, habitat restoration, community science monitoring and climate action.
The work with WWW was not the first for the Pajaro Middle School campus.
In 2022, the organization worked with students, faculty, administrators CCLI interns and community volunteers to plant planting 80 shade trees and native bushes around the playing fields and as a windbreak next to neighboring farmland.
In 2023, WWW was awarded a Green Schoolyards grant from the Cal Fire Urban and Community Forestry Program to develop climate resilient school campus designs for four PVUSD Schools Pajaro Middle and Rolling Hills middle schools, and Radcliff and Mintie White elementary schools.
At Pajaro Middle School, this includes more tree planting, in addition to native plants and edible gardens, a fruit tree orchard and other environmental conservation features.
On the same day, a handful of employees from PG&E were on the campus to plant native plants and restore several planter boxes on the campus.
For information, email project lead Yesenia Jimenez at ye*****@wa**********************.org .
Thanks for the story, Todd!
Special thanks to Sierra Azul Nursery owner Jeff Rosenthal and daughter Alexa for providing expertise with plant selection and spending time yesterday pulling out dead wood and guiding volunteers as they planted new.
The campus looks great!
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