Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy

02/13/2024

Connections
Puzzle #247
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04/18/2018

Muir Principal Lawton Gray dispels the fake news on social media.

04/18/2018

http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/guest-opinion-eileen-white-read-a-better-future-for-the-muir-ranch-school-garden/ #.Wtdi-tPwY_U

Daily Newsmagazine and City Guide to Pasadena, California featuring News, Events, Restaurants, Real Estate, Shopping and Lifestyles

05/25/2017

Thousands of Pasadena taxpayers were shocked last month to read that $65,000 of money we have paid in federal, state, and local taxes was being moved from the PUSD schools budget to two attorneys because of a legal technicality involving an allegedly troubled teacher at James Madison Elementary School. These attorneys then attempted to force PUSD to fire Madison Principal Juan Ruelas on the pretense of a $20,000 “gift” that they would then make to the school. From our tax money. What a neat trick!

Next, these lawyers “released” an obviously faux “survey” of Madison’s teachers, with the requisite slamming of Mr. Ruelas. Credulity was strained irremediably: Missing were an indication of how many of Madison’s more than 30 teachers were “surveyed” along with any mention of an unbiased, independent, certified polling company having been hired to conduct the survey.

It’s very tempting for Pasadena’s non-public-school intelligentsia to find such shenanigans tres amusant and to look away, tisk-tisking that here’s another example of tipplers at Pasadena’s public trough. After all, it doesn’t affect “us” — or does it? First of all, in the pocketbook; my family hands over a painful $35,000 in property taxes to the Golden State each year, and I’d like to think that at least a few of those dollars benefit the commonweal. Secondarily, in the old-fashioned concept of pro bono publico. Pasadena’s public-school families are our neighbors, and their children’s futures matter.

Frequent and well-publicized rigamarole — instead of a tightly focused campaign to boost students’ grades — is exactly why Pasadena bears the shame of having the largest (30% or more) proportion of school-age children attending private schools in the United States. Surely it’s time for PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald and the elected Pasadena School Board to reward Mr. Ruelas for his campaign to reverse Madison’s decades of poor student performance and tighten its lax standards for teachers. I served as Principal for a Day at Madison this year and heard dozens of teachers praise his efforts. They told me his reforms included such common-sense items as forbidding Madison teachers to use their cell phones while they are supposed to be teaching, discouraging them from eating while they are teaching, and requiring them to report for duty before their students arrive each morning.

As for the teacher whose discipline by Mr. Ruelas was the proximate cause of the lawyers’ energetic and creative litigation, I was with several friends attending a recent Pasadena School Board meeting. Three of us turned away from the podium after speaking together in favor of Mr. Ruelas. We noticed among the audience members, the very teacher championed by those creative lawyers. We watched, horrified, as this purported pillar of educational excellence grimaced at us while she raised her middle finger.

from today's Pasadena Now

http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/guest-opinion-eileen-white-read-lets-halt-lawyers-manipulation-of-education-in-the-pasadena-unified-school-system/ #.WSbqYhPyvQw

03/31/2017

http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/guest-opinion-keep-principal-juan-ruelas-at-madison-elementary-school/ #.WN5zexIrIiA

Daily Newsmagazine and City Guide to Pasadena, California featuring News, Events, Restaurants, Real Estate, Shopping and Lifestyles

11/19/2016

"Franklin Fox Garden"

09/15/2016

Second Graders from Madison Elementary visit the Huntington Botanical Center to identify parts of plants under microscopes.

09/15/2016

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy
Awards $70,000 to PUSD for Educational Garden Projects

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 - Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy today awarded $70,000 in grants to the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) to support school gardens to improve family health and nutrition, enhance science education, and help increase parental involvement in the schools.

The funds, awarded via the Pasadena Educational Foundation, will be used to support two new school-based gardens, at Pasadena High School and Franklin Elementary School, and to create a new full-time consultancy position at PUSD for a certificate-holding Master Gardener to coordinate the district’s school gardens. The individual serving in this position will be known as the “Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy Master Gardener.”

In addition, the grants include funds to enhance the Madison Elementary Garden & Orchard, which was built with PCGC’s support in January, enabling the garden to comply with California health regulations so that fresh produce grown at Madison can be served to children in the school’s cafeteria.

“PUSD will make dramatic gains with this money,” said Ann Rector, PUSD Director of Health Programs. “This grant will provide us the opportunity to have a Master Gardener work with students and teachers during the school day. Thank you believing in this program,” she added.

“Our small foundation is privileged to help expand and strengthen PUSD’s exemplary school-garden program,” said Beth Hansen, Chair of The Conservancy’s Board of Directors, in announcing the grant awards. “Pasadena’s school gardens are not just growing, they are showing true progress as a means for teaching entire families about healthier lifestyles. We are proud that PUSD’s efforts embody our own foundation’s motto: planting ‘seeds of transformation’ in our city’s underserved neighborhoods.”

Ms. Hansen noted that PUSD recently determined, through a five-year longitudinal study of student health, that students’ average weight in three grades had dropped 11% because of targeted family nutrition-and-health programs, which include school gardens.

“I’d also like to extend our thanks to the wonderful team at the Pasadena Educational Foundation, who have encouraged and advised our small foundation and helped direct our philanthropy, and to the PUSD Board of Education,” she added.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy, a wonderful community organization providing school gardens that teach important life long learning outside the classroom," said Patrick Conyers, Executive Director of the Pasadena Educational Foundation, upon receiving the $70,000 in grant funds.

PCGC was founded in 2012 by longtime community volunteers Brooke Garlock and Eileen White Read, who gathered 30 individuals and couples interested in improving the health of children and families living in Northwest Pasadena through support for community and school gardens. Currently, the Board of Directors includes Marco Barrantes, Bea Bennett, Adele Binder, Cheryl L. Kopitzke, Donald Hall, Stephanie Hall, Jill Hotvet, Susan Osen, Christopher Pelham, Charles C. Read, and Charise Stewart. Chuck Bakaly and Jessica Korzenecki are Emeritus Directors.

09/15/2016

http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/pasadena-community-gardens-conservancy-awards-70000-to-pusd-for-educational-garden-projects/