The other benefit of partnering with a developer for the school board is it reduces their costs for grounds maintenance.
So many of the City’s school yards are barren, treeless, dusty, dry, grass fields.
I don’t know if there are specific reasons why school yards never have trees (I assume it’s some ridiculous safety reason, if it’s not due to costs), but if I’m the City, with $61M of federal funding burning a hole in my pocket to plant trees, the school board is one of the first places I’m looking.