Jennie Katherine Kolter Elementary was built in 1960 and has been a pillar of the Meyerland community and southwest Houston. In 2003 they established a vegetable garden, pond habitat, and coastal prairie environment, that has become a tremendous benefit to the students' lesson enrichment. Each year, students at various grade levels were able to utilize these outdoor assets to go outside the traditional classroom, grow their own food in the vegetable garden, and discuss life-long healthy eating habits. The coastal prairie environment enabled children to explore how the land looked in their neighborhood before human development, and the pond provided realistic examples of life cycles, water cycles, and ecosystems.

 
In 2017, severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey overwhelmed the school with more than four feet of water across the campus including their award-winning outdoor learning area. The school had to be demolished and rebuilt. During the three years it took for the reconstruction, the students were displaced to a temporary campus without their beloved garden. Parent volunteers worked to develop a small, temporary garden so the students did not also lose their many important traditions and culture established by the garden.

With the reconstruction budget tightly stretched, there was no funding to reestablish the garden which was as unsalvageable as the school. Kolter's Parent/Teacher Organization (PTO) recognized how important the garden was to Kolter and set out to ensure that the school would reopen with an even better version of the garden and approached Clark Condon to help them with plans for "The Grassroom".

Inspired by the community's dedication to preserving this connection with nature and reestablishing the interactive education space, Clark Condon was happy to donate their time and services for this endeavor. Working with the facility and parents, the space was reimagined and designed to provide a vegetable garden with raised planting beds, coastal prairie garden, pond, butterfly garden, orchard, and an outdoor classroom. Materials were selected to be durable and easily maintained by the community volunteers. With the design set, the PTO was able to fundraise to make The Grassroom a reality.

Phase 1 of The Grassroom was completed and opened along with the new campus in fall of 2020. The students now had a vegetable garden, coastal prairie garden, orchard and outdoor class space. Fruit trees for the orchard were donated by the local non-profit group, Trees for Houston. Phase 2 is currently under construction and will open in early 2021, which includes the pond and butterfly garden.

The Grassroom is a testament to the resiliency and enduring spirit of the community; A community that has struggled to overcome, and will rebuild stronger than ever before. Clark Condon is proud to be a member of this community. We look forward to seeing The Grassroom at full completion and thriving for years to come.

As seen in LASN magazine, February 2021.