By Day a School, by Night a Park Complex

If the idea of using schools and other existing resources to bring parks and after-school programs to the inner city catches on, a modern recreational facility might look something like this:

Walnut Park Elementary in Southeast Los Angeles functions as a school until 3 p.m.

Now, on weekday evenings and weekends, its playgrounds and a new lush nature park next to the school will probably be alive with children in sports clinics and science walks.

In an atypical partnership, Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy on Thursday unveiled the new 5-acre Walnut Nature Park in the unincorporated community north of South Gate.

The $1-million project took nine years to complete, as Supervisor Gloria Molina reminded the students during a celebratory assembly at the school auditorium attended by children and parents.

“How old were you in 1992?” Molina asked the children.

Up went a sea of hands showing their index fingers.

“Was that a long time ago?” she asked.

“Yes,” the children responded.

“That’s when it started.”

Children spoke, as well.

“At this big, full park, I can now see in my mind, young kids running around, playing freeze-tag and hide-and-go-seek,” Stephanie Garcia, an 8-year-old fourth-grader, read from a poem she wrote. “It’s noisy but quiet. It’s full but empty. It’s fun but great.”

Then, some children and the officials headed out to walk through the park.

Molina said the project is a unique effort she hopes to see replicated in other areas.

“We’re looking to schools to open their [facilities] for recreation on weekends,” she said. “This project is part of my ongoing commitment to addressing the need for after-school programs . . . and creating and maintaining open space.”

Besides the nature park, other facilities on the grounds include a multipurpose field for soccer, kickball and baseball, an amphitheater, a play area, restrooms and a picnic section.

The facilities, at 2642 E. Olive St., will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. Sports clinics will be run by the county Parks and Recreation Department.

Walnut Park, like other urban corners, is known for a lack of open space, Molina said.

The idea to transform the school started with Walnut Park Elementary ex-Principal Ken Urbina. The school owned most of the land, but it was overgrown with weeds.

“We looked around and said, ‘We want a good science curriculum going,’ ” said Urbina, referring to the school’s hope for the nature park and the science lessons students could have there.

Urbina approached Molina, who started exploring the partnership with the other agencies.

The neatly landscaped park is covered with coyote brush and young trees, including coast live oaks and California sycamores--and the black walnut tree the children and officials planted Thursday.

The park is just a few steps from the basketball courts but on a sunny day it had the peacefulness of a mountain trail.

At the tree planting, Molina immediately said she would prefer if the weekend hours were extended. She also had some qualms about the chain-link fence ringing the park.

“I’ve wanted to see a fence that is more inviting to the community,” she said later.

But for the moment, the park was everything that Stephanie Garcia, the fourth-grade poet, had imagined.

“Since there are various activities you can do,” the rest of the girl’s poem read, “I know and believe you will have a marvelous time reading, playing and eating in the Walnut Park Elementary Nature Park.”