Staff Spotlight: Rachel Skokan and Madison Opp

The new campus building project, which will conclude in the fall of 2027, will be the largest building project in The Bush School’s history. Every new addition to the campus contributes to the robust future of Bush students by providing inspiring, sustainable, and flexible spaces for learning and cultivating community. It’s all thanks to Grounds Coordinator Rachel Skokan and Groundskeeper Madison Opp, who work together to maintain the campus’s appearance, ensuring it thrives amid the construction happening at Bush.

“Many of the changes we have made have been reactionary to the ongoing construction around the Middle School area,” said Rachel. “There were ten rose bushes outside of the Commons, and since that area was destroyed, we’re now thinking of what the new rose garden will look like, and what sort of plants will live there.”

Since the winter of 2025, Bush has undergone significant changes in preparation for the launch of the new Center Campus, Commons, and Middle School project, including the demolition of the former Commons and Middle School and the installation of new vegetation and landscape decor. Rachel and Madison have been working diligently in the background to ensure that the campus remains beautiful and accessible for the community throughout the process.

“I’ve worked in several different plant nurseries around the country,” Rachel said. “So, I have a pretty good mental palette of plants to choose from. It’s been great getting to learn more about the native plant life of the Pacific Northwest, and planting them on campus provides students with an opportunity to learn about them, too.”

Rachel, who’s been part of the Bush community for eight years, oversees and maintains the campus's physical condition. Using her extensive knowledge of flora and fauna that she learned from her school teachers, she maps out the best places for various plants to flourish in the coming seasons.

“We tried to salvage as many of the larger plants outside of the Middle School area that we could,” Madison shared. “We’ve also been creating a lot of new pathways. Since the fence was installed, the routes people used are no longer accessible, so we’ve been working to insert paths wherever we can to make it easier to get around.”

Madison began working at Bush in August 2025 and has been absorbing as much knowledge as possible while working with Rachel. She’s been supporting her vision to install more drought-tolerant plants to reduce water use on Bush’s salmon-safe-certified campus. Along the way, she’s learned much more about native plants and their importance to the ecological community. 

“This is my first time working around plants, but I have a background in Agriculture and Pollinator Education,” Madison shared. “I’ve loved this process, because implementing native plants on campus is one of the many great things we can do for our local ecosystem.”

During Upper School Cascades this month, Rachel and Madison worked with Upper School students in the Designing and Building Small Interactive Gardens and Mindful Naturalist Cascades to help them choose the best places on campus for their environmental outdoor stations. 

“Last week, we gave campus tours to Mindful Naturalist and Interactive Garden Cascade students,” Rachel said. “We gave them tips on what kind of equipment to use in order to move gravel or dirt around, and what changes are feasible for the campus’ current state.” 

 The new campus building project, which will conclude in the fall of 2027, will be the largest building project in The Bush School’s history. Every new addition to the campus added by Rachel, Madison, and the rest of the Facilities Department contributes to the robust future of Bush students by providing inspiring, sustainable, and flexible spaces for learning and cultivating community.

"It didn’t strike me until adulthood that being a woman in the horticultural field was an oddity," Rachel said. "I appreciate so much the balance we have in our Facilities Department, full of empowered women. So many other maintenance departments I have encountered have different balances and mindsets. I work with some truly wonderful people."