FJUHSD’s recent emphasis on mental health care and trauma-informed teaching methods encouraged teachers and students to embrace various ways to bring peaceful areas into stressful school environments. Student gardens create calming oases for staff and students, combining student-led planning and maintenance with opportunities for community engagement, improving the overall school climate. Five FJUHSD high schools have offered Agriculture programs for decades, but those areas are off-limits to most students and focus primarily on the Career Technical Pathway.

Recently, separate student-focused growing spaces have emerged, offering calming environments and education experimentation opportunities to more of the student population. Troy High School science teacher James Kirkpatrick and his students created a fenced-in, outside classroom that paired teaching environmental studies with a calming place for students to decompress from study stress during the 2018/19 school year. He financed the garden by gaining permission to access an existing planter area behind the science building. Between student volunteers, community donations, and grants, he and his students continue to annex this area for education about water conservation and native plantings and for the creation of a stress-relief zone.

At the August 2023 school board meeting, Angie Cencak, FSTO President (Fullerton Secondary Teachers Organization), announced that Fullerton High School teacher Ashley Hill and Special Education Instructor Andria Sandoval of La Sierra and Sunny Hills High Schools had secured CTA grants to install student gardens. By November, La Vista/La Sierra Principal Sandi Layana announced that the La Sierra High School ATP (Adult Transition Program) had installed raised garden planters, and the students were currently planting vegetables and flowers. La Sierra ATP teacher Charlotte Dobyns said, “The students love to water and watch the seeds grow.” ATP students participate in a weekly visit to a nearby farm to see food growing and bring fresh vegetables back in order to practice their culinary skills (last fall included making pumpkin soup). The onsite raised planters allow students to experience seed germination, watering, trimming, weeding, and harvesting daily.

The students enjoy gardening and are currently growing flowers, beets, cilantro, and onions. Ms. Dobyns said that they are proud of their accomplishments and look forward to returning every Monday to see how their plants have grown during their weekend. ATP Instructor and grant writer Andria Sandoval plans additional planter beds at Sunny Hills High School later this year so the ATP students there can experience growing their own plants, too. Fullerton High School Science Instructors Ashley Hill, Kristen Cruz, and Danica Perez started the largest and most ambitious student garden in FJUHSD so far.

They accumulated over $16,000 in grants and community donations to transform the 145’ x 75’ green area between the outer science buildings into a native plant garden that will include amphitheater seating under the historic oak tree, tables for student work, benches for Socratic seminars, and a pond-less water feature surrounded by planters and pathways. Student groups, including the STEM Scholars, Alliance for Environmental Stability, and the Environmental Science Club, are all participating in the planning, installation, and maintenance of the area. Ms. Cruz, Ms. Hill, and Ms. Perez contacted the Facilities Department liaison to preserve the area’s ginkgo trees, believed to be gifted by the Nixon Library, and the 50+-year-old oak tree while requesting infrastructure projects needed to convert the stagnated area into an enhanced student learning environment funded with district funds and grants.

The garden requires district cooperation in order to remove the existing grass and irrigation, install ADA access ramps connecting walkways into the garden area, and install fencing, lighting, new drip irrigation, and new walkways. The grant money will go to benches, tables, plants, experimental equipment, tools, and storage. The students are discussing composting, wormeries, drought-tolerant plantings, and water recovery experiments. Both the teachers and students see the area as a potential expansion of the science classrooms as well as a place to relax.

The planned garden provides student engagement and will add to the school’s ability to support students’ social and emotional well-being. Installing a garden takes teachers, students, and administrators clearly communicating about student needs, grant deadlines, district cooperation, and long-term maintenance plans. Setting clear schedules with all stakeholders helps install these projects with fewer delays while staying true to campus climate and culture. Students and teachers envision new educational environments that spill outside the traditional enclosed classroom, and district administrators need to communicate what plans, permits, and funding are necessary to make these projects happen.

Outdoor education gardens have long-term student magnetism; Mr. Fitzpatrick remarked earlier this year that students were drawn to the garden as soon as they returned to the campus after post-pandemic in-person teaching resumed. The living environments allow students to embrace more responsibility and experimental opportunities while allowing them to find calmness and quiet not available inside the classroom.