In late 2025, Bailey Middle School's Native Plants and Animals program was awarded the Urban Forest Grant by the City of Austin to plant a new grove of trees in front of the school. Our NPA Booster Club applied for this grant as part of our "Cool the Campus" campaign to make the school grounds shadier for both students and wildlife. Our campus has a very low canopy cover, and most sidewalks are exposed to full sun throughout the day. By strategically planting new trees on our

We had our first successful butterfly release today! Ms. Tafoya found Monarch butterfly eggs on the zizotes milkweed that is located in the athletic fields at Bailey Middle School several weeks ago. Since this is a high traffic area, she brought the eggs and harvest stalks of milkweed into the classroom. After several weeks, the Monarch butterfly hatched, and today she and her students released it into our butterfly garden! Check out the video below (although if you blink, yo

Composting with worms ("vermicomposting") is a great alternative to traditional composting because instead of having to carefully monitor heat ranges, turn the compost, etc., the worms do all the work for you! It's also extremely easy to set up a worm bin in your garage or even under your sink (we promise, they don't smell!). The best part is, within 6 months or so, you can sift the bins for worm castings and have the most amazing fertilizer for your plants! In fact, the Bail

We were beyond excited by the number of attendees, education partners, entertainers, and more at our second annual Butterfly Fest and Native Plant Sale! We estimate that probably 400-500 people passed through the school grounds, and the NPA Booster Club was able to successfully fund its budget for the 2026-27 school year from the plant sale. Last year's profits enabled us to purchase 5 new picnic tables to create an outdoor classroom for the program, and we're already brainst