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Bromwell Elementary School | |
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BROMWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (214) Telephone: Mr. Jonathan Wolfer, Principal |
Bromwell's Learning Landscape Committee
Lois Brink is the current contact for this project and she can be reached through our school office at 303/388-5969. While most of the features of our Learning Landscape are now complete, our school grounds are continuing to evolve.  Below is an excerpt from a Rocky Mountain News article about Lois' work and the positive influence of our Learning Landscape...
big trees and whimsical banners, rocks to clamber over and swings and slides and climbing structures painted green, purple and orange. It wasn't always that way; a few years ago, Bromwell's playground was as dull-normal as any other. But the school became the incubator for an idea from one of its parents, Lois Brink, an associate professor of landscape design at the University of Colorado-Denver. Challenged to develop a hands-on project for her graduate students, Brink thought of the often barren world of elementary school playgrounds. Empty canvasses of land just waiting for a creative hand. "We wanted to raise the standard of what a playground should be, to make it a place to learn and a community gathering place, to make it a focal point of the community," Brink says. Bromwell was the perfect proving ground, Brink figured, because its parents could raise the bucks. So they formed a landscape committee made up of people who wanted to go beyond just planting petunias out front. Together, they developed a four-phase master plan for the school. Up went a fanciful gateway to welcome the whole community into the playground, an outdoor solar system plaza and a grassland garden. Still to come: an outdoor stage and a weather-monitoring station. It's a place that seems to inspire peaceful and often purposeful play. "It's more than just putting in a couple of swings," Brink says. "This has much bigger ramifications in terms of children and their ability to learn and the self-esteem of a community." DPS' [Mike] Langley [Executive Director of Facility Management] looked at Bromwell and was sold. A year ago, the school board approved a partnership with UCD, and 12 schools went through the master plan process with one of Brink's students. Most of the elementaries are schools... located in lower- income neighborhoods. "Our goal is to build these so we can demonstrate that you can improve learning, you can improve test scores by the environment kids are in, and that includes their playground," Brink says. -- from Power Play by Lisa Levitt Ryckman, published October 8th, 2000 in the Rocky Mountain News.
Here are two photos from the dedication of our Learning Landscape. The first picture (left) shows Principal Frank Bingham with members of the DPS school board, and the next (on the right) shows Bromwell kids cheering during the ceremony.
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