Community Schoolyards Program Expands to Miami Beach

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has announced its successful Community Schoolyards program is expanding to the City of Miami Beach for the 2024-2025 school year.

The City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County Public Schools have selected Miami Beach's Biscayne Beach Elementary, a jointly owned school field, for the city's first project. The design process is underway, and the North Beach school field will be the first in the district to partner on a Community Schoolyard site.

"We are excited about expanding our schoolyards program to Miami Beach to create a safe and inviting green space in Miami-Dade County," said Director of Urban Parks for Trust for Public Land Jay Wozniak. "Hundreds of families will benefit from having greater access to nearby outdoor recreation and a safe place to gather."

The Community Schoolyards program is a national effort by Trust for Public Land designed to expand community access to schoolyards during non-school hours and increase the percentage of people who live within a 10-minute walk of a park, as well as transforming these spaces to address climate impacts and improve educational outcomes. In the case of Miami Beach, the enhancements would add to the available green space in the area.

Enhancing schoolyards and parks with trees, gardens and engaging play equipment delivers an abundance of benefits to students, from emotional to academic to health. Teachers and school administrators have reported that attendance, behavior and test scores improve following schoolyard renovations.

Renovated schoolyards can also help communities address climate vulnerabilities, with landscaped gardens and porous surfaces absorbing stormwater and creating cooling shade.

"We are thrilled to begin this partnership and to provide new and updated outdoor spaces for our families," said Miami Beach City Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.

"Miami-Dade County Public Schools is looking forward to engaging students, staff, and community members in the process of designing an inviting, accessible and safe space for school-day play and after-hour recreation," said Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools Dr. Jose L. Dotres.

The designs created for the campus are being shaped by the students and the school community through TPL's participatory design process to ensure these spaces benefit residents for years to come. Trust for Public Land, along with its partners and donors, educate students about the value of parks and the careers that shape these community spaces. Biscayne Beach Elementary will conduct community engagement in early fall 2024.

Potential plans for the Biscayne Beach Elementary schoolyard may include spaces for learning experiences, outdoor musical instruments, seating areas with shade structures as well as new climbing equipment.

Access to the outdoors for sport and play is a fundamental human need, essential to our health and well-being, and is an important tool in mitigating the effects of climate change. And yet, 100 million people, including 28 million kids, do not have access to a quality park within a 10-minute walk from home. Community Schoolyards projects are a low-cost, effective solution to this park access gap.

For nearly 30 years, Trust for Public Land has worked with cities and school districts across the country to design schoolyards.

About Trust for Public Land

Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. As a leader in equitable access to the outdoors, TPL works with communities to create parks and protect public land where they are needed most. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,420 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, raised $94 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected nearly 9.7 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org.

About Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), an A-rated district, is the nation's third largest school system with more than 400 schools and a diverse enrollment of more than 330,000 students from over 160 countries. Our ongoing tradition of groundbreaking achievement has earned top recognition at the national and international levels. M-DCPS also recently reached a landmark graduation rate of 92 percent. For five decades, M-DCPS has been a leader in Choice, now offering more than 1,000 cutting-edge, award-winning programs designed to prepare students for 21st century learning in the age of innovation and technology. Students and their families play an active role in choosing educational opportunities that foster academic excellence, school-to-career pathways and real-world learning.