OASIS Schoolyards Journal 2: Welcoming the newly transformed schoolyards

The OASIS approach aims to achieve a radical transformation of the schoolyards by converting them into green and enjoyable places for recreation, however, this transformation does not imply wiping out everything that currently exists on the site. In line with the “sustainable and resilient design” principles of the project, the OASIS partnership has worked on mapping the existing “assets” of the schoolyards and assessing their condition in order to preserve them in place or reuse them elsewhere. A detailed report has been developed for each one of the UIA OASIS Schoolyards including the documentation of the existing trees and vegetation that need to be preserved and carefully protected during the construction works while also the equipment such as benches, basketball hoops, trash bins that are in good condition and can be re-used in the same or other schoolyards. Moreover, the Municipal Department of Technical Works has a special workshop dedicated to collecting, restoring and reusing materials such as wood and urban furniture. Therefore, all collected reusable materials from the demolition of the OASIS schoolyards will be refurbished and re-used in the same or other public spaces in the city.

School Community

The OASIS partnership invested time and resources in developing opportunities for the school community to be involved in every step of the process enabling every participant to fully comprehend and get familiarized with the complex and multi-stage procedure for the realization of a participatory planning project – from co-planning to implementation. In doing so, the OASIS project aims not only to successfully transform the schoolyards according to the co-designed ideas but to create the culture of civic engagement in the school community and strengthen the sense of shared pride and co- ownership.

Last July, the pupils of each school participated in a preparation workshop for welcoming the construction workers to their schoolyards. The pupils painted the “Cour OASIS en chantier” banners and celebrated the first day of the construction works.

Following the completion of the “heavy” construction works for transforming the schoolyards (unraveling the asphalt pavements, creating hills, installing equipment), the pupils were expected to contribute in the final refinements of the schoolyard design such as planting vegetation, placing small elements such as log steps on the ground and many more activities. More specifically, a 5-day participatory workshop took place in the first week of March aiming to actively involve children in the finalization of their schoolyards.

Furthermore, a series of participatory workshops are planned in the coming months for an initial exchange of feedback for the newly transformed schoolyards aiming to establish the sense of co-ownership of the place and collectively decide on the guidelines and tasks for using and maintaining this shared space. These workshops are coordinated by the OASIS partner responsible for citizen engagement (La Ligue de l'enseignement) and the outcomes will be shared and analyzed in the next project Journal.

Engagement activities with the local community

While the active participation of the school community was achieved by integrating the safety measures into the scheduled activities, the engaging actions with the broader community has been a more complicated task during the pandemic. The school community is an already defined community with a limited number of people who had the opportunity to convene safely when the schools were open. On the contrary, the general safety measures taken for minimizing the outbreak of the pandemic didn’t allow physical gatherings of the local communities and therefore it disrupted the series of the OASIS neighborhood meetings.

However, the OASIS partnership adjusted their engagement strategy to the new situation and managed to reach out and actively engage local stakeholders for most of the OASIS Schools via online meetings. For this purpose, the OASIS partnership collaborated with several Municipal Departments “House of Associations and Citizen Life” (Maison de la Vie Associative et Citoyenne) which are located in every arrondissement. This collaboration helped the OASIS partnership in mapping local organizations in each of the OASIS Schoolyards’ neighborhoods and gradually initiate an online engagement strategy.

The project enjoys a strong political will as the Mayor who supported it from the beginning in 2018, was re-elected in the recent elections. However, internal changes within the local government led to re-structuring core departments within the Municipality. The OASIS project, which was initially coordinated by the Municipality’s General Secretariat, has now been delegated to the Department of Education. On the one hand, this change has been beneficial for the sustainability of the project as it is now successfully embedded into the core activities of the Department of Education while also the project manager remains the same person ensuring a smooth transition and the continuity of the project. On the other hand, a possible risk that might occur due to this change, is establishing and sustaining the highly needed cross-departmental collaboration for applying the OASIS approach in all stages - from the co-design phase to the construction and maintenance of the schoolyards.

The development of the public procurement guidelines and requirements has been an intensive task as it required a shift in the way schoolyards were built till the recently. Asphalt pavements and pre-manufactured play equipment were now being replaced with nature-based solutions, landscaping and loose parts play settings. The valuable contribution of CAUE 75 from the beginning of the public procurement process and the close supervision of the construction sites ensured the high quality of the final outcome.

In January, the City of Paris kicked off a new initiative called “ville du quart d’heure” (the 15-minute city) which has been a key pillar of Anne Hidalgo’s (the current re-elected Mayor of Paris) re-election campaign.

What is the 15-min city plan?

Within the frame of this initiative, a number of schoolyards, initially 12 and currently 48 schoolyards, are open to public on Saturdays from 10am – 5pm to provide an extra open space amenity to the residents of the local neighborhood. Although the OASIS partnership has been consulted and contributed to the selection of these 48 schools, this initiative has not been fine-tuned with the OASIS project from the beginning as it was announced by a different Municipal department with a different coordination team. However, today, this new program has been delegated to the Educational Department as well and  7 out of 9 transformed OASIS Schools are among the selected schools. It is noteworthy that the initial communication gap between those two projects had caused a confusion in local communities and school administrations as multiple issues regarding safety and maintenance emerged since this new initiative didn’t align with the original schedule and methodology of the OASIS project.

The OASIS approach has its foundation in co-creation and participation, it aims to build together with the local community the framework and the protocol for opening the schoolyards and the implications that this action brings such as responsibilities for maintenance and safety. The top down approach of the new initiative has partially disrupted the continuity of the OASIS project within the local communities, however, it also unlocked a significant opportunity for strengthening the concept of transforming the schoolyards into the neighborhoods’ social hubs after school hours and gaining the support of the public opinion. Moreover, the complementarity of these two projects would be beneficial in the long-term for upscaling the OASIS project across the city by securing stronger political will and funding. For example, the City of Paris has already allocated budget for the security and the cleaning staff during the Saturday schoolyard openings for the selected 48 schools.

At this moment, that the schoolyards are already transformed and officials as well as citizens can actually experience the benefits of the OASIS approach, it is essential to invest in the effective communication of the OASIS project internally within the Municipality in order to avoid any further confusion of the local communities which are already engaged and on board to the project while also to benefit from a cross-departmental support.  

From the beginning of the project, the communication strategy with the school community and the local residents has been the backbone of this innovative concept. The effective engagement and active involvement of the beneficiaries is the key element for the long-term sustainability of the project. However, the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic caused a major disruption to the planned engagement strategy and urged the OASIS partnership to revisit and adjust the communication methods to the new circumstances. As described earlier in this Journal, the engagement of the school community was less complex than reaching out to the broader local neighborhood.

The updated engagement strategy for the local residents due to the pandemic is heavily depended on e-engagement actions as the OASIS partnership is facilitating online discussions mainly with the local NGOs. Despite the appropriateness of the e-engagement method for the current circumstances, these actions need to be complemented with safe offline engagement approaches as the online reach out can be quite limited in terms of inclusiveness. Different social groups might not have access to online campaigns and activities due to lack of skills and experience or lack of access to online tools and devices. The topic of inclusiveness should be particularly prioritized in the face of this current crisis as the social groups that are affected the most are the vulnerable and marginalized citizens with limited access to services and amenities.

The City of Paris envisions to transform approximately 25 - 30 schoolyards per year, applying the innovative OASIS approach. The OASIS partnership has already developed a number of tools and templates, such as the co-design activities, educational material, construction and material guidelines for implementing the different phases of the approach. Nevertheless, the challenge will be to preserve the achieved high quality standards in all future schoolyard transformations within a tight timeframe and  with a limited budget.

Additionally, the selection process for eligible schools every year to become OASIS schoolyards is at the top of the agenda at the Department of Education. The two scenarios are the following:

• the “mainstream approach”, which is to select schools according to their current condition of maintenance and infrastructure
• the “atypical approach”, which is to conduct a community competition and explore which schools are more eager to embrace the holistic OASIS approach throughout all the project stages – co-design, schoolyard transformation, open-access to the neighborhood activities. 

The willingness of the school and the local community to invest time and effort into this project plays a key role for the sustainability of the project. Therefore, the dilemma lies in finding the right balance between the current condition of school infrastructure and the current willingness of the communities in order to prioritize the eligible schools for transformation. The topic is still under discussion as the OASIS partnership is also seeking ways to reduce the overall cost of the OASIS approach.

In the phase of upscaling, it is critical to preserve the principles of the OASIS user-centered concept and avoid any simplified replications that might narrow down the process only to the construction phase. This is the biggest challenge the City of Paris will have to overcome as the announced target goal of transformations every year is quite ambitious. It remains to be seen how the OASIS partnership will manage to establish fail-safe mechanisms that will preserve the authenticity of this innovative project.