Central Jr. High (Springdale School District) – Success Story

2019 - 2020 Central Jr. High School utilized ISEP grant fuinds to purchase materials and equipment to build and develop a green house.

2018 - 2019  Central Jr. High utilized ISEP funds to build 10 raised beds and planted tomatoes, squash, eggplant, peas, beans and potatoes. Due to the weather the garden was not planted until April.  By June the plants were nearly in full production. At the end of June, the garden was scheduled to be removed for the construction of a new parking lot.

Reaching out to the North West Arkansas Farm and Garden Facebook page, many of the plants were successfully relocated. The raised bed timbers were salvaged for relocation, as was the dirt.  A multifaceted mobile solution to getting plants ready go into the new reestablished beds is currently on-going.

While the garden was a grievous loss, it will be reestablished in a location that is very unlikely to be disturbed again.

This funding has been beneficial to my students and probably even more to me because there is no better way to connect with my kids than a garden project.  It enriches and extends my classroom and lets me see students in a different light.