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Board previews trailer for "Mr. B's Backyard" outdoor classroom video, highlights partnerships
Summary
Board members viewed a three-minute trailer of "Mr. B's Backyard," an outdoor-classroom project; presenters cited partnerships with Stockton University, the New Jersey Department of Education and US Fish and Wildlife and said the full video will be posted online.
The board previewed a three-minute trailer for "Mr. B's Backyard," an outdoor-classroom video produced with support from Stockton University and other partners. Mr. Santelli introduced the trailer and said the full, 18-minute video (posted online) documents student work in a naturalized detention-basin habitat used as an outdoor classroom.
Miss Summers and Patty Weeks described the project as a replicable model: "It's my baby, I like to say," one presenter said about the program. Speakers emphasized that what started as drainage basins at Reeds Road School and a middle-school site evolved into habitat-rich learning spaces where students conduct water sampling, catch amphibians, and teach peers about local ecosystems. Presenters noted help from Stockton University, a climate grant workshop, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and local groups such as the Green Team.
The district said the trailer was being shown publicly for the first time and that the full video would be posted online for educators and the community. Board members who watched said they appreciated student engagement and the hands-on learning visible in the footage.
The presentation framed Mr. B's Backyard as both a curriculum-support tool and a community model that other districts could replicate with existing retention basins and modest resources.
