Modesto’s Fremont students write letters to save shade trees

A rumor that shade trees at Fremont Elementary School would be axed over spring break prompted heated discussions, with students starting a letter-writing campaign to protect the campus canopy.

The trees are safe for now, Modesto City Schools Superintendent Pam Able said Tuesday, emphasizing that no saws will sound over the break, Friday through April 12, and that the community will have a chance to air its concerns.

“Parents and students will be invited to a meeting after spring break to discuss the trees and new blacktop that will be coming this summer,” Able wrote in an emailed response to a Bee inquiry.

The 14 trees in question, fruitless mulberries and Chinese pistache, grow in holes cut out of the blacktop area, said John Liukkonen, head of maintenance, construction and operations for the district. The trees have no water source, and their roots are lifting sections of the decrepit asphalt, he said Wednesday.

Parents said the trees sit in front of Fremont Open Plan classrooms, a Modesto City Schools program of choice where students move between classrooms and parent involvement is part of the deal.

The trees are in good health, and the loss of shade just as the weather is warming makes no sense, said Fremont parent and Modesto Junior College botany professor Elizabeth McInnes. “Those trees aren’t diseased in any way,” McInnes said. “We live in the Central Valley, where we have temperatures above 100 degrees in August, when students go back to school.”

“The kids are not allowed to sit or eat under the covered walkway area, so this would leave them to eating lunch on hot benches in the direct sun for over an hour each day when they return to school in August,” parent Brenna McNamara said.

An arborist hired by the district said half the trees are diseased or rotting, Liukkonen said. But he agreed that students need a shady place to eat lunch. “There’s no shade cover, and that’s what we need to do. By the end of the calendar year, we need to get a shade structure in place,” he said, adding that timing will depend on state approval, which is required for any building at a school.

Meanwhile, the children have written letters to the district and school board to stop the tree cutting, parents said. Board President Amy Neumann said she welcomes the correspondence.

“I strongly encourage student civic engagement, and the school board is a great place to start. The school board’s primary role is to make decisions that are best for our students and our community. We need to hear from students and get their input on important issues that impact their lives,” Neumann said by email Tuesday.

“I would love to see more students at our school board meetings and I am happy that we have an engaged and active (high school) student representative on the board. I look forward to reading the student letters regarding the trees on their playground,” she said.

Plans for new blacktop for Fremont Elementary were approved by the school board in February as part of a $2.5 million replacement bid for asphalt at Davis High, Roosevelt Junior High and several smaller campuses. The agenda item says the blacktop, which has been there since the 1949-era campus was built, shows “alligator cracking” and is beyond its useful life.

The district plan calls for replacing the blacktop – without the tree holes – except for a large swath of asphalt that stretches nearly to the baseball diamond. That will become a grassy area with a small grove of seven or eight Chinese pistache trees, Liukkonen said.

The district is getting quotes to move the healthiest of the existing Chinese pistache trees, he said, “but I have to ask, is that the best use of taxpayer money when I can get a new 10-gallon tree and it’ll be the same size in three to four years?”

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Modesto’s Fremont students write letters to save shade trees."