The Charter School of Morgan Hill has just received notification
that it has been selected from more than 500 gardening programs
nationwide to receive a 2004 Youth Garden Grant from the National
Gardening Association.
The Charter School of Morgan Hill has just received notification that it has been selected from more than 500 gardening programs nationwide to receive a 2004 Youth Garden Grant from the National Gardening Association.
The grant provides for the school’s garden program to receive a variety of products from sponsoring organizations. These items will include seeds, books, tools and fertilizer.
CSMH’s new gardening program is the foundation of a school agricultural facility. The program is being developed and implemented by a credentialed agricultural science teacher. Kathy Funke, Charter’s Ag. Science teacher, has been working with children and agriculture for the past 15 years on school farms, in 4-H programs and in FFA programs.
Funke is one of a group of founders of the Charter School of Morgan Hill and has worked at the school during its first two years as a science and P.E. teacher. She is now working as the Coordinator of the Exploratory (enrichment) program and also as the Ag. Science teacher in that program.
Charter School of Morgan Hill just moved this past July to a new facility that has space for a garden and agriculture program. Encinal school, CSMH’s new school site, apparently had some type of garden and agriculture program at one time because there are 20 old garden boxes and a garden work shed on site that have fallen into disrepair and have not been used in years. Although CSMH’s Ag program is brand new, they have already been able to gather community support for the project:
LoBue Tree Service donated 8 hours of tree trimming work at the facility that had not had tree trimming done in over three years. Monterey Mushroom donated two tractor trailer loads of mushroom compost to use for the new garden area and the garden boxes on campus that have been defunct for many years. CSMH parents donated tractor work to plow the new garden area and plow in the compost and donated time and materials to rebuild the garden shed, including rebuilding the water system and electrical outlets to the area that have not been working.
CSMH parent volunteers help water the new garden on the weekends, donate seeds, supplies and equipment. PG&E donated wood chips from their tree top trimming of nearby power lines for us to spread around the garden area to make a comfortable walkway and keep the weeds down.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Dept. arranged for the school to have two separate weekends worth of volunteer labor (misdemeanor offenders who must do community service) to weed, rake and clean up the entire facility before we moved in, spread wood chips, clean out old garden boxes and redo chicken wire bottoms.
CSMH is making Ag Science part of the ongoing Exploratory curriculum and rotating all students in the school through 12 weeks of Ag Science at some point during the school year. The initial 12 weeks with the middle school students was extremely successful with students developing a row crop area, planting corn, vegetables and flowers. First and second graders now are taking Ag Science and have planted seedlings for the spring garden, grown edible mushrooms and eaten them and are creating earth worm habitats. Third, fourth and fifth graders will have Ag Science in the spring and will revive the row crops and plant the planter boxes.
CSMH is building a program that will eventually be able to participate in the Plant a Row for the Hungry program in nearby San Jose, which is highly successful. They also hope to develop students who are socially responsible, aware of their environment and understand the impact of humans upon it. The CSMH vision also is to have the garden be a school-wide resource so that all classes can participate in outdoor science activities at any time, whether they are currently having the Agricultural Science Exploratory class or not.
Having students participate in enrichment courses and be exposed to a variety of fields and activities is part of the philosophy of the Charter School of Morgan Hill. The school’s mission is: Through strong family involvement, community interaction and project-based learning, the Charter School of Morgan Hill will develop lifelong learners prepared to be innovative participants in the global community.
Details: www.mhcharter.org/ phone 463-0618 or fax 463-0267.
