mattersmagazine.com 19 BELOW: Maplewood artist John Kaufmann created a desk and podium especially for the outdoor classroom. Kaufmann is currently building matching chairs. BOTTOM: Glenn Klein, who owns Glenn’s Landscaping in Maplewood, donated his crew and a Saturday to the job of planting the trees that form the school’s native arboretum. More than 30 trees were planted as part of the project. “It’s a beautiful project,” says Matthias Ebinger, the current co-chair of the OLC Committee and the man who took it over the finish line. Ebinger is the culminating director of a PTA project that sometimes seemed too big ever to accomplish; through the years, many parents dedicated themselves to it, even though they knew their kids would never fully benefit from the space, since the challenge of raising the money was a formidable one. It all started not long after the school – off Springfield Avenue at the southern tip of Maplewood, and named for noted 19th-century inventor and strawberry grower Seth Boyden – became the district’s demonstration school. As such, Seth Boyden not only accepts students from across Maplewood and South Orange, but also is charged with trying out new education initiatives. Outdoor education seemed a natural outgrowth of its original multiple-intelligences curriculum, which seeks to teach subjects in a variety of ways to meet the needs of all kinds of learners. Est. 2006 THANK YOU! Celebrating 10 years in Maplewood Village! Come visit our newly expanded shop: 9 Highland Place Maplewood, NJ www.perchhome.com