Cafeteria Patio Enhancement

Our goal for this project was to make the cafeteria patio a more open and fun place to spend time during lunch or open campus. We wanted to make it a more attractive area, and we wanted to extend the patio to make it more spacious and so that we could fit more people outside. We hope it will serve as a safe, enjoyable place for years to come for our community.

Current Efforts

We have the goal of helping landscape the kitchen garden area, but with remote learning it was difficult to make progress on that goal.
Ideally we'd like to help IGI with the growing beds, and to add two new picnic tables for additional seating between the growing beds.
We also would like to add a wood chip path to connect the Sanderson Road side of the cafeteria patio with the new picnic table area.
We'd like to do landscaping, including native plants
We want to label all plants so that students can learn plant identities while they enjoy the space.

Group: Leadership Class

Faculty Mentors: Natalie Munn, Colten McCracken

Past Work

2020-2021

We were remote a good part of the year, but had the goal of getting started on painting and adding a mural to the back side of the long wall.

We primed and painted the wall
Amber Cuthbert designed the mural
Leadership class students helped paint the mural as they came back to school after remote learning

Student Leaders: Amber Cuthbert, James Dyke, Mike Wallace, Cam Geary, Aryanna Stevens, Maria Frangos, Alison Custer, Nate Porterfield, Madeline Youmans, Anthony Vilaca

Faculty Mentors: Natalie Munn, Tiffiney Shoquist

Ideas for images for the mural

2019-2020

We have completely finished the Cafeteria patio with the help of Horticulture.
We added to the patio and upgraded the tables outside, along with adding umbrellas to shade people eating or hanging out outside.
We added swings and a grape arbor for alternative seating. Concord grapes were planted to grow on the arbors
We finished landscaping patio area.

Student Leaders: Aden Ross, Charlie Lakis, Aiden Marek

Faculty Mentors: Natalie Munn, Kyle Crossland, Suzie Brown (Island Grown Schools)

Support: Thank you to Mahoney's for the donation of plants and shrubs for our patio space

2018-2019 Planning

Leadership class students worked to gather feedback from students, faculty, and staff to come up with ideas to improve the aesthetics and function of the outdoor patio area for use during lunch and recreational hours.

A survey was given to members of the school community. Upon receiving feedback, our team worked to plan a new patio layout that addressed the concerns of the responses. In the spring, some of these plans were made a reality in the patio space, seating areas, and surrounding structures of the exterior patio space.
Wooden picnic tables were chosen based on the survey results.
Purple umbrellas were chosen to address the comments regarding optional shade for the outdoor seating areas.
Various seating arrangements, such as chairs, benches, and swings were built and purchased.

Student Leader(s): Owen Favreau, Daniel Bonneau, Kenny Hatt, Jeremy Regan, Owen Bresnick

Faculty Mentor(s): Natalie Munn, Pam Scott (parent volunteer), Suzie Brown (Island Grown Schools), Kyle Crossland, Kevin Crowell, Mike Taus, Aaron Ashton

2018-2019 Seating Area

The project of redesigning the patio stemmed not only from the bland look of the original patio, but also because there were no longer enough seats for all the students who wanted to sit there.

Got rid of the old tables.
Physics students assembled new, wooden picnic tables.
Made more than we previously had.
Ordered Building Trades adirondack chairs through the Business Club, and painted them purple.

2018-2019 Edibles Bed with Island Grown Schools

Our goal was to construct an edibles bed next to the school patio, with a plan to plant chives, kale, and an array of other edible plants. All plants could then be enjoyed by students in the future, whether that be picking them yourself, or eating them as part of the school lunch. The goal was to bring a healthier, fresher, and a more organic aspect of food to the school environment and lunch.

The raised bed was finished and everything is now planted, and all we have to do now is wait for everything to grow so we can start enjoying our fresh and organic new food options.
Plants were planted in the first week of June 2019 and will be available to students during the 2019-2020 school year.
Will be available for the kitchen staff to use in school lunches or breakfast.
Healthy alternative to store/company bought foods.

2018-2019 Bluestone Extension

We worked on expanding the current patio in order to to provide alternative seating and enhance student relaxation. By creating a more welcoming environment for the outside patio, student unity is strengthened with a more presentable and enjoyable hang out area for future students.

Planned the blueprint for the extension, and measured and marked (with stakes and string) the area for the future patio extension.
The group completely dug up the entire area planned for the patio, and dug down eight inches all the way around.
Once the sod was dug up, gravel was poured onto the future patio area and raked until the gravel was even.
The next step in the progress of the project was to place stone dust above the gravel in the completing steps of the patio before the group placed stones.

2018-2019 Mural

We took inspiration from Beatriz Milhazes, a Brazilian artist that works with colors and shapes to create our mural. The patio at our school for the past many years has been plain and boring, by adding this bright and colorful mural it will bring life to the outdoor space. Throughout the making of the mural we used many different techniques to achieve the flower shapes and color-blocked background.

We first primed the wall, then painted it with a purple paint.
Printed flower stencils from a paper cutting printer with help from Mr. Connors.
Taped down and painted restricted areas for color blocking as a background.
Next, we painted vines using a light green paint and painted in the stencils.
We completed five total to put on the wall by the patio.

Student Leader(s): Kate Howell, Molly Carroll, Maria Clara Lacerda, Abigail Hammarlund, Violet Cabot, Lauren Boyd, Lauren Pagliccia, Enrique Contreaus

Faculty Mentor(s): Natalie Munn, Tiffeny Shoquist

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