Mr. Philbrook loves trees so when he passed along the “tree” portfolio to me a number of years ago, I made a point of ensuring that the schools would remain environmentally-conscious when it comes to our leafy friends. The need to remove four trees to allow for the construction of the field and track, switching from a natural grass field to artificial turf, and the fact that we had a number of ash trees at the Primary Campus succumb to the emerald ash borer made it difficult to appear that we are an earth-friendly school.

Over the past few weeks, however, we have been doing our best to preserve and build the canopy at the schools. A dozen new trees have been planted at the Mentor campuses along with another dozen bushes and shrubs and more work will be done in the next few weeks with mulching, watering and trimming. The company that consults me on all of our tree needs says that they see fewer and fewer companies every year that invest in their trees the way we do. They say that the TEAM and Mentor properties have a very nice mix between old, new, deciduous and coniferous and that they are proud to be part of our commitment. They also like some of the surprises they find at TEAM and Mentor; the arbourist who declared a hackberry tree in the southwest corner of the field “on its last legs” in the fall couldn’t believe that it budded and is now in full leaf. Perhaps Mother Nature appreciates our efforts as well?

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School