KINGSTON, Ont.—October 22, 2026— A new climate-ready school ground in the Limestone District School Board (LDSB) is giving students, educators, and community members more opportunities to learn outdoors while helping the site better manage flooding, heat, and other impacts of a changing climate.
The project at the Katarokwi Learning Centre is part of Evergreen’s Climate Ready Schools program, which helps school communities redesign hard-surface and underused school grounds into nature-rich places that manage stormwater, support biodiversity, and create more welcoming spaces for students and neighbours.
“School grounds are vital public spaces, and there’s something powerful about learning in a landscape that is alive and changing — where children can experience the seasons, discover the connections between living things, and deepen their relationships with one another and the land,” said Heidi Campbell, Senior Designer, Climate-Ready & Child-Friendly Public Spaces, Evergreen. “We are grateful to the LDSB, Indigenous educators, Trophic Design, and the local community for helping bring this vision to life — creating a place that offers opportunities for learning and connection for generations to come.”
Rooted in placekeeping, the project considers the needs of people alongside water, plants, animals, and soil, while bringing Indigenous histories and futures into focus. What began as a drainage improvement has become a broader transformation designed to support outdoor cultural programming, Indigenous education, and everyday learning in a more resilient landscape.
Designed by Trophic Design, the transformed school ground includes outdoor classroom spaces, a sweat lodge area, and climate-resilient landscaping, including rain gardens and bioswales. These features are intended to improve drainage, support biodiversity, and create a more usable, welcoming space for hands-on learning throughout the year. The school is located along the shores of Lake Ontario, where rising water levels have contributed to drainage challenges and limited use of the field during wet seasons.
“We are grateful to have had a chance to work on a project with such a meaningful impact to both the students and broader community partners in Kingston,” said Terrence Radford, Landscape Architect and Indigenous Consultant at Trophic Design. “This project was never about creating a visual identity or representing indigenous people through symbolic gestures. It has always been about creating space, providing infrastructure and creating opportunities for current and future education-based programming. It has been about ensuring the students, staff, program partners and community have access to naturalized spaces that allow them to practice culture and develop programming in their own backyard.
Evergreen has partnered with the LDSB for eight years, developing school ground design guidelines, supporting projects, and advancing sustainable approaches to creating nature-rich learning environments across the board. The Katarokwi Learning Centre represents a significant milestone in this longstanding collaboration.
“As a school board we are very pleased with the new outdoor, physical space that has been collaboratively created at the Katarokwi Learning Centre, said Krishna Burra, CEO/CEDO/Director of Education of the LDSB. “This space represents a gathering place where stories can be shared, relationships can be strengthened, and learning can happen both inside and outside of the classroom. It will provide opportunities for students to engage with the land, culture, and community in meaningful ways, helping them build a deeper sense of connection, identity, and belonging. This project reflects what is possible when organizations, community members, and dedicated staff come together around a shared vision. The result is a welcoming space that will be enjoyed by students and the community for years to come.”
Support for this program has been provided by Evergreen’s generous community including: RBC, Peter Gilgan Foundation, and the Chisholm Thomson Foundation.
