Gatewood Elementary rustles up “Kids for Kids’

| Gatewood | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

If you have driven by the above-pictured greenery along Fauntleroy a couple blocks north of Lincoln Park, you might not know there’s an elementary school behind all that. But the fine folks of Gatewood Elementary have a plan to clear things up: Gatewood parent Steve White wrote to let us all know about the impending arrival — one week from today — of those beloved Rent-A-Ruminant goats (seen along Admiral back in July). Steve says the objective of the goats’ work October 18-21 is “to mow down a hillside of ivy as part of our playground renovation project. … The ivy removal is part of ridding the school grounds of invasive plant species, and restoring the native plants.” The Gatewood playground renovation, Operation Imagination, has been three years in the making and is going well thanks to donations of time and money as well as various grants; it will be spotlighted during a day of fun events while the goats are on site, “Kids for Kids,” 10 am-4 pm Saturday 10/20.

marty October 12, 2007 (12:06 pm)

Invasive plants??? Give me a break, that ivy was there in 1954 when I attended first grade at Gatewood. I guess it is too “low maintenance” and needs to be replaced with something else. (sarcasm)

lori October 16, 2007 (2:42 pm)

Hi Marty~

I too thought ivy was a nice ground cover because of it’s lush green look; however, after learning more about what it does to our trees and the spread of it by birds through the seeds, have since changed my opinion. There are great websites out there that talk about the effects of ivy. I have attached one if you are interested. I encourage you to come to the celebration on Saturday, to read more about the entire project that the school is working on.