PARAMOUNT SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE

Address: 3020 Nowland Ave., 46201 (Center Township)

School Website: www.paramountschool.org/

General Overview of the School: Paramount School of Excellence (K-8th) just east of Rural Ave. along Brookside Pkwy. PSE, a charter school in its first year, stresses emphasis on ecological sustainability and environmental resilience throughout the school campus and curriculum.

General Overview of the PSE KIB Club: Led by Colleen Donahoe, an instructional assistant, the club is strongly aligned with the “Green360” initiative already in place at the school whereby the ultimate goal is to become a paper-less building. The club will meet monthly to learn various plant propagation techniques that they can use to start valuable native perennials, annuals and edibles to sell. They will also learn how to collect, preserve and sell flower and vegetable seeds. The KIB Club will also help to maintain the projects, such as watering and weeding.

General Overview of Landscape Design Plan: PSE has a very barren campus right now, but is looking forward to planting fruit and nut trees, along with other understory and shade trees. A wetland habitat, butterfly and hummingbird gardens are also underway. Already in place, the Give Forward garden, had a very successful 1st year but is in need of a nearby watering source. Rain barrels have been discussed and seem to be the logical option. The KIB Club also runs a recycling program for paper currently and is exploring options to implement a program for glass, plastics and aluminum. Composting is currently going on at the school but they are in need of more bins

Volunteer Landscape Architect: M.J. Meneley, Browning, Day, Mullins Dierdorf

What Happened in 2011...

-planted nearly 50 trees all over their campus
-worked on the veggie garden and replaced many fence slats that had been knocked down
-built a shelter for their bicycle rack

What's Happening in 2012...

Since they've got their fill on trees for the time being, we are working with M.J. Meneley from Browning, Day, Mullins, Dierdorf to help develop their rain garden just to the west of the school building. It is currently just a depressed area that takes quite a bit of the rain runoff from the roof and parking lot. With M.J.s help as well as the kids from the KIB Club and volunteers, we will plant this area with native perennials and shrubs that love water.  

Recent Projects

On May 11th, 2011 volunteers from Arbor Homes helped the KIB Club kids plant 23 native trees and build 2 new compost bins. The volunteers were also given a tour of the school and handed out doughnuts and KIB bracelets to the kids.