Fall 1999
Allison Elementary Gets a Face Lift
Allison Elementary is surrounded by a 10-foot-tall caged fence with barbed wire on the top. The brick on the outside of the school is worn from being sandblasted numerous times to get rid of graffiti. But, thanks to the efforts of Charles Hirst, this East Austin elementary school in the community of Montopolis is getting a face-lift.
"I feel the beautification has made the children more proud of their school," said Betty Pearlman, who is a kindergarten teacher at Allison. "It helps the students feel like they are worth something, if they have a nice environment..."
Charles Hirst is a 41-year-old member of the University of Texas-based Americorps for Community Engagement and Education, whose primary focus is literacy tutoring. He works as a full-time reading tutor at Allison.
When Hirst read about the closing of Celebration Station, a family amusement park in Austin, he remembered the impressive landscaping at the business and inquired about getting the plants donated. The owner agreed and then Hirst set out to transfer the plants to Allison. The former amusement park plants have been placed around the sidewalks and gardens of the school. "I thought the school had beautiful students and teachers, but I felt the school was not as attractive as it could be," Hirst said. "I wanted to not only beautify the school, but also the community." Hirst has also added tall sunflowers to the bus stop, terraced the land around the school from donated materials from the Texas Highway Department, and made a garden patch for the students to use.
"I think what Mr. Hirst has done just in a physical way to the school has made a tremendous difference," said Sheryl Prater, who is a kindergarten teacher at Allison. "Both in how much more attractive the school looks, but also what he has done for the surroundings of the school. It serves as an example to the faculty and the community in regards to what caring about something can do and the difference it can make."
He plans to continue his beautification efforts. Hirst is working toward making the playground sidewalks safer by terracing the land to stop mud and gravel from running onto the sidewalks when it rains. He is also adding plants underneath the air conditioner drips of the school.
"He took on the beautification of the campus. That's a project that has definitely contributed to the betterment of the school," said Rosalie Oliveri, principal of Allison Elementary.
Hirst is also using his landscaping project as a teaching tool for his students. He noticed that the bus stop sidewalk in front of the school became slippery with mud and gravel when it rained. This made it dangerous for the elderly and disabled. In response, Hirst built a terraced garden around the stop to prevent mud and gravel from washing onto the sidewalk. It didn't work because the rain washed the garden out, but he used his failures as a lesson to his students on the importance of not giving up. "I used this as a lesson to my students to not get discouraged. You might get washed out the first couple of times, but adapt," he said.
He then found success by building a dry creek around the stop. When it rains, the water runs into a man made creek which allows the water to run off into the street without carrying mud and gravel on the sidewalk.
"He noticed the erosion in front of the school and it took lots and lots of different trials [to fix the problem]. A lot of things didn't work, but he just keep coming back with another plan and another plan," Oliveri said. "Then he found a way that it would work and that was a good example for students to learn from. That you don't give up, you keep trying different ways until you're successful."
—Jonathan Carroll