Percy Priest opens outdoor classroom

For students, the idea started on paper.

Percy Priest Elementary art teacher Tina Atkinson challenged her fourth-grade students to come up with designs for an outdoor classroom. Helping students implement their observations about class space, directing them to consider the types of places most conducive to studying and learning, Atkinson guided four classes full of kids through creation of concrete plans.

Those designs were made over the course of 12 weeks in the 2005-2006 school year. Wednesday morning, students’ ideas became a reality with the opening of Percy Priest’s first outdoor classroom.

“I was thinking of Cheekwood, and all the beautiful flowers there,” said Addie Davis, a current Meigs Magnet Middle School student who was one of the 2005-2006 fourth-grade designers.

The new classroom includes a flat area for students to sit and face an instructor, surrounded by landscaping elements indigenous to Tennessee. The area sits in front of the school’s main entrance, serving a dual purpose of beautifying the school, project organizers said.

Funding for the project started with about $1,000 in seed money raised by parents of Percy Priest’s 2005-2006 fourth-grade class. But the bulk of the cost was picked up by Metro, as former Council member Lynn Williams decided at the end of her term last year to use approximately $15,000 in discretionary funds available to her to fund the classroom.

“This is government at its best,” Williams said.

According to Atkinson, every Percy Priest fourth-grader from the class of 2005-2006 became invested in the project. Students voted to select four designs they liked the best — one design for each classroom of students — and then the four top designs were combined to form the final classroom.

Mayor Karl Dean and Acting MNPS Director Chris Henson were part of yesterday’s opening. Dean said the project exemplifies the type of community engagement that should happen more in the city. Henson encouraged students to remember the day every time they see the classroom — and to thank their teachers for all that they do before school ends for the summer.