Politics & Government

Update: Helix Director Is Determined to Host Community Garden on Campus

San Diego Unified school board also grappling with similar issues on several of its campuses.

Updated at 2 a.m. Jan. 25, 2012

Helix Charter High School would bypass the Grossmont Union High School District to establish a community garden on campus if the district board doesn’t approve a joint-use agreement at its meeting Thursday, the La Mesa school’s leader says.

Rani Goyal, executive director of Helix, told her school’s charter board Monday night that she’s hopeful the Grossmont board would overcome its liability concerns and OK the garden.

“It’s really the city of La Mesa and the community garden that carry the [liability] insurance,” Goyal said in the school library.  “That’s why people don’t understand the board’s reaction” and decision last week to table the issue.

“The [Grossmont district] lawyer said the liability does not rest with [the school district]. It rests with the community garden.”

At the least, she said, the Grossmont board will “allow us to move into the agreement with the city of La Mesa.”

Goyal said she had instructed Debi Byrd, a Helix environmental science teacher, to write a letter to schools Superintendent Ralf Swenson and the board to outline the benefits of the garden to the school.

“I think this is really important to our community and really important to the school,” Goyal told her nine-member board. “And we have a lot of staff members who have shown an interest.”

Mayor Art Madrid and City Manager Dave Witt have strongly backed the community garden at Helix as well, she said, noting recent well-attended meetings and fundraisers on the garden.

“Everyone [in City Hall] has really gone out to make this happen—as part of their pitch as to why La Mesa is so great,” she said, noting that a garden would help in grant applications.

She declared: “This isn’t — eh, if we get it, we get it, we don’t, we don’t. We want this.”

Goyal said Bob Kiesling, the school district’s facilities manager, called Helix to say the charter school could enter into an agreement with the city directly for garden obligations.

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“Then the [Grossmont] board would feel more comfortable—because it’s completely out of it, and the liability would rest with us,” Goyal said.

A website devoted to community gardens throughout the region recently reported: “On January 12, 2012, the Grossmont School District School Board will vote on the Joint Use Agreement. At this point there is no reason to think it will not pass.”

The Grossmont district board will meet in a special session at 4 p.m. Thursday at the East County Regional Education Center, 924 E. Main St., El Cajon. The agenda is attached.

“I’m hoping it will work out—[I’m] being positive,” Goyal said.  “We’ll know Thursday.”

On Tuesday, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education directed staff to explore the use of community gardens on district property in an effort to promote learning and health living habits for students.

Find out what's happening in La Mesa-Mount Helixwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The district does not have community gardens on school property, but district staff said many schools already use instructional-based gardens that require support from teachers, staff, parents and students.

Gardens are effective in promoting healthy living and fighting childhood obesity, and enhance environmental awareness and social well being, according to the board’s resolution letter.

“There's something very, very healthy about growing things in the earth,” said board member Kevin Beiser.

District staff said both Montgomery Middle School and Springall Academy received grant funds for planning a shared garden.

The board directed the district superintendent to look into state Education Code, laws, policies and procedures to determine if the use of school property for shared community gardens would be viable and legal.

“This motion simply is to direct the superintendent to work with the community to figure out how to knock down some of those legal or policy barriers,” said board member Richard Barrera.

City News Service contributed to this report.


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