Trees Planted: 1

School-Wide Planting Events Held: 0

Image Credit of Ryan Peterson

Posted 10/3/2025 at 9:46am

This year, there is an exciting new Transformation Learning Project ramping up its work at Sentinel. This project aims to plant dozens of new trees on campus by combining the power of everyone from staff to students on campus. In July of last year, Missoula was struck with a windstorm that damaged nearly 25 percent of Sentinel High School’s mature trees.

Schoolwide involvement in the project starts during Homecoming Week (Oct 6-10), which is dedicated to planting the first round of trees amongst the usual school pride activities. During this week, over 30 trees are going to be planted around campus by students during their SPEAR class.

Last year the head advisor of the project, Mr. Ezra Shearer, a Social Studies teacher at Sentinel High School, started asking for donations from clubs and community organizations to get the project funded. Towards the end of the year, MCPS decided to provide a $12,000 grant to allow for 35 trees to be purchased and planted.

While campus beautification is a primary selling point for the project, its impact goes beyond just planting new trees. Some additional project descriptions provided in the letter to potential sponsors sent out by fundraising individuals to businesses included the professional care for existing trees on campus, the purchase of trees, and associated materials for planting. Other jobs involve training for interested students and staff on proper tree care techniques, design for outdoor classrooms, shade structures and native landscapes, and proof of concept so the project can expand to future MCPS campuses in the coming years.

Shearer is requesting that all clubs and classes provide additional time to plant all of the trees during Homecoming Week and the weeks after. The manpower needed is currently not able to be fully met by students during SPEAR, so additional support is needed and would be greatly appreciated by the school and project managers. If a student is interested in having their club or class plant trees, they are always welcome to talk to their club advisor or classroom teacher to ask them to fill out the form sent out to all staff a couple of weeks ago.

As homecoming week looms around the corner, advancements in the project have continued to be made. On September 30th, 35 trees arrived during the first period. These trees were purchased with funds provided by the MCPS grant. With the help of administrators and students in Mr. Shearer’s first period government class all of the trees were unloaded next to the band room exit door (see right photo).

Every student at Sentinel will at some point be asked to do an activity to help out with this project. By making this an all school activity, all students are able to participate in ways that they may have not been able to before.

Image Credit of Ryan Peterson