While academics may be the most important aspect of school, some people believe more can be done to embed in students' minds the idea that schools are not only a place they should want to attend, but are also an integral part of the overall community.

Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education member Susan Scheuerman shares that mentality, and as such, is leading a movement to beautify Genesee Street Elementary School, a place in her mind that could use a little sprucing.

“A school should be a place a child wants to go to,” she said, “and I think part of that has to do with the aesthetics of the building. This is part of that whole connection of the school with the child, the school with the neighborhood, the school with the city.”

The board representative to Genesee Elementary, Scheuerman is leading a Genesee Beautification Committee to brighten up the exterior entranceways with some landscaping, planting flowers and plants to make the school more welcoming to students.

With assistance and support from the Carol Roberts Foundation, Emerson Foundation, the city of Auburn and the Auburn Beautification Commission, a plan that was about three months in the making came to fruition last weekend.

Last Saturday, students and teachers brought their green thumbs to the elementary school on Genesee and Garrow streets, spending the day putting into the ground plants donated by the city: black-eyed Susans, barberry plants, Persian lilacs, crabapple trees and hostas, she said.

“We wanted to do something that has an immediate impact around the entranceways,” she added.

Jennifer Ridley, a Genesee teacher who worked with Scheuerman to get school staff involved, said she has already seen an impact.

She said she's heard a lot of, ‘Wow! That's so nice,' and ‘That is so pretty,' from students this week.

“The comments they've made really shows how their school is changed,” she said. “It's something new to them.”

The committee is not finished with its work, as more is planned for the fall.

Black galvanized steel benches and a matching garbage pail recently ordered will be installed in the front of the building, Scheuerman said, and viburnums will be planted on the school grounds.

Additionally, Scheuerman said the sidewalk leading up to the school entrance would look nicer if it were brick, and so the committee is in the early stages of organizing a campaign to sell personalized bricks to interested community members.

The idea of a beautification committee originated from a conversation the board had in a planning committee meeting earlier in the year. Scheuerman said there was a discussion of landscaping, and she mentioned how, in her opinion, Genesee Elementary “could stand some beautification.”

Board members thought it was a great idea, as did Genesee Principal Ron Gorney and Superintendent J.D. Pabis, she said. From there Scheuerman began looking to see if there would be any financial assistance available. The Carol Roberts Foundation promised funding and the Emerson Foundation donated $5,000.

The committee then approached the Auburn Beautification Commission for help with the landscaping design. Landscape architect Jim Kent volunteered his time to devise a design, Scheuerman said.

Ridley said she hopes the changes will “build a sense of respect for the school,” and carry over to the outside community.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net