The new courtyard garden at Chase STEM Academy is about more than the tomatoes, red cabbage, and peppers that were nestled last week into rich dirt.
It’s about building a neighborhood, said Jack Hunter, principal, without a penny of taxpayer dollars.
He waved at a parent driving by and that dad, Roy H. Jenkins, returned shortly with seed packets from nearby Fred’s Pro Hardware store.
“I try to do everything locally,” said Mr. Jenkins, whose daughter, granddaughters, and nephew attend this tucked-away school in old North Toledo.
It’s about math, Shaun Grohnke said. Her fifth-graders measured, taped, and drew grids for chess and checker boards on the flat tops of tree stumps on which they’ll play games and sit during lessons. “It’s a great hands-on activity and it engages everyone no matter their skill level,” she said.
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here for more photos from the garden
It’s about getting outside during the school day, said a couple of cute-as-all-get-out girls. “I like that we get to do math outside so we can be out in nature,” said Amarie Smith, 10. Added Angel Martin, 11: “It’s cool how we have an outside classroom.” They’ve taped their names on the log they decorated.
For Kenneasha Davis, 13, it was carrying 40-pound bags of soil and manure and getting her hands dirty — not her favorite thing. Nevertheless, she liked the exercise. “And it’s fun to be outside.”
It is a fresh-air haven for Princess, a handsome sulcata tortoise and a couple of bearded-dragon lizards. They now have a 6-foot-square grassy enclosure of cement blocks in which students planted flowers the critters like to eat, Luke McKinley said. As the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) specialist, all students come to his classroom weekly for a special (and often cool, such as making giant bubbles) activity.
It’s attracting and providing food for butterflies and birds, growing food, and really, all of the above, says Luanne Williams, kindergarten teacher. She’s the energizing force behind turning learning at Chase inside out.
“My dream has been to have a garden that would involve the students,” she said. She’s already observed students who veer toward pugnacity being pleasant in the garden.
With about 250 pupils, Chase is a few blocks off Summit Street. Though in the heart of the city and within continual earshot of train rumble, it shares a border with Manhattan Marsh, a forgotten wetland/dumping ground that’s being remembered and revitalized.
The Metroparks of the Toledo Area purchased 25 acres of the marsh at a sheriff’s sale and expects to receive another 40 from the Lucas County Land Bank, said Scott Carpenter, Metroparks’ spokesman. When walking trails and boardwalks are built, it will be used by the school’s students and teachers.
Chase’s green ball got rolling with a spring, 2013, visit by a legion of Owens Corning employees, who dug up a 30-by-20-foot area viewable from the cafeteria, installed a decorative arch, and planted flowers and bushes to attract birds. They also hauled lots of junk out of the marsh.
Last year, Ms. Williams planted milkweed to draw butterflies, and in September, the little ones in her class learned to count up to 22 — the number of monarch caterpillars they found. Five caterpillars made it into classrooms (joining lots of other animals), where they spun their gold-dotted chrysalis and hatched out 10 to 14 days later.
In April, Chase received a $4,500 grant from Lowe’s that Mr. Hunter applied for, and within a few weeks, a 6-foot chain-link fence and gate fronted the courtyard. Soon, dozens of people were building and filling raised beds for every grade level.
On a 60-by-20-foot rectangle rototilled by parent John Gray, soil will be mounded into piles and planted with “three sisters” — corn, beans, and squash, which play nicely together.
After a career in insurance, Ms. Williams began teaching in her forties and she’s skilled at garnering donations. She plans to drive in from her Sylvania home weekly in the summer to water and weed. She’ll give produce to neighbor volunteers and in September, will have food tastings with students.
Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Chase’s venture is how it has pulled in support — from suburban greenhouses and birding shops, to the Arts Commission that will paint a mural in the courtyard and advice from Toledo Grows’ and the Metroparks.
And of course, Ms. Williams has a wish list: Good soil (“it’s so expensive,” she said), bird seed, flat-topped logs at least a foot in diameter and 16-inches high (they’ll be seats for students), picnic tables, the use of a small bobcat to clear the school’s boundary for native plants that will attract birds and butterflies. Herbs. Beehives and native-pollinator boxes. Climbing rose bushes for the fence. Five-gallon buckets (they can be seats, used for weeding, and for harvesting).
Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com and 419-724-6075.
First Published May 20, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
