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It was an effort that included a number of improvements. Students and volunteers received about 25 donated trees and planted them around campus.
They put up a court for wall ball on the playground. And they turned an ugly dirt area into an award-winning xeriscape garden called Coyote Corner.
They also added a shade structure and some benches so students would have a cool place to hang out during lunch, or a refuge from the rain while waiting for their parents.
The school, 4333 S. De Anza Boulevard near Higley and Germann roads, was honored with the Gilbert Excellence Beautification Award last month for the garden.
The idea for the garden started a few years ago as the school's HATS (Higley Academically Talented Students) group collaborated with principal Theodora Schiro and some parents.
Seventh-graders Porter Derrick and Ian Prost were among the students who studied the traffic patterns to see where the kids were walking, then made the design with the help of parent volunteers.
"We used math to figure out the slope, square footage and costs," Ian said. "We learned how to be landscape architects and helped make scale model posters of the garden."
The students also learned public speaking and communication skills as they visited classrooms, presented the posters and asked for suggestions on the garden.
Volunteers laid concrete to expand the walkway leading to the playground.
The school received a $5,000 grant from Lowe's to buy the plants.
Dave Owens, the Garden Guy from KTVK-TV (Channel 3), helped with the planting and taught the students about each plant. Owens is the father of the school's special education teacher, Christy Owens.
The school's custodian, Carlos Mendoza, painted a sprawling desert landscape mural with a sunset over a backdrop of mountains on the brick wall along the garden.
Every student in the school was part of the planting process, which was finished in October 2007.
"I like how the garden looks," Porter said. "It's a lot better than how it looked before."
"It looked like a dirt wasteland," added Ian.
The improvement effort isn't over. The next project for the students is labeling the various desert plants in the garden.
Rebecca Nieboer, the school's gifted program teacher, said the project was an "amazing undertaking."
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