Tips for communication/ scheduling with schools for garden classes

[Erica Krug]

Hi all,

We are currently planning for next school's year Gardener-in-Residence (GiR) program which provides seasonal garden-based education at partner schools (this year we are working with ten schools). Our organization has been offering this program in different iterations for over 15 years but some things, mainly communication with schools, continue to be a challenge. I'm curious how other organizations who partner with schools to teach garden lessons handle communication and/or how you set up your garden lesson schedules, especially at the beginning of the school year (if this is when you are doing it.) Right now lesson scheduling happens in varying ways at all of our schools which takes up a lot of staff time for admin staff and our GiRs, it can also feel like a burden for school staff during an already incredibly hectic time. I'd love to streamline this process somehow! 

I'm also wondering if there are any organizations out there that offer programming that follows the growing season (here in Wisconsin I'm thinking February-- with indoor seed starting-- through November) as opposed to the school year (fall and spring)?  My initial thought about this is that along with it being really cool to follow the growing season-- as opposed to start with harvesting whatever is left in the garden and then putting garden to bed-- it would be easier to communicate with schools in January about scheduling for lessons than it is in September (but obviously this timeline would have other considerations and potential challenges...) 

Finally-- if you have read this far!-- one more question in regards to cost- do you charge schools all the same amount or do you have a tiered rate based on economic need? We are trying to be responsive to economic needs but have heard from school staff that free/ reduced lunch rate (or economic disadvantaged rate) isn't always an accurate indicator of need... 

Thanks for your help!

Warmly,

Erica

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Erica Krug

[she/her/hers]

Farm to School Director

Rooted/ Wisconsin School Garden Network

Support your local food system! Help Rooted continue to connect people to the land and to each other.

[Angela Martin]

Hi Erica,

The non-profit that I work with (The Edible Classroom) does our programming during the school day.  We have each classroom come out to the garden for 40 minute lessons 1x in the Fall and 1x in the Spring.  We are a fee for service model with additional support from grants and fundraising to offset costs to the school.  We charge per class.

Scheduling is one of the most time consuming parts of the program!  What has worked more recently is to ask for the schools schedule and then work around each grade's lunch, recess, and specials (they seem to be the "unmovable time blocks".  Once we have the schedule for that school we send it to the school staff that has agreed to be the "garden liaison" and they either assign the teachers or send the template out to the teachers to sign up.  Our goal is to have a "tentative" schedule set up by the end of the school year for the following year that can be adjusted as needed.

See example below:

Week #	Date of service	# of lessons on each date of service	Lesson times	Teacher Name and Grade Level
Week 1	9/9	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1.Doreen Dogan -2nd grade 2. Telesco - K5 3. Thomas - 4th Grade
Week 2	9/16	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1.Kendig 4th 2 Cabezas - PreK 3. Knaub- 5th
Week 3	9/23	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1.Crook - 3rd 2. Goss - K5 3.Caudill- 5th
Week 4	9/30	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1. Allen - 1st Grade 2. Backenstose.- PreK 3. Benbow-5th Grade
Week 5	10/7	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1. Vulopas -3rd 2.Contrestan 1st 3. Ewing 2nd
Week 6	10/14	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1. Gonzalez K5 2. Kulp- 3rd 3. Constein- 2nd
Week 7	10/21	3	9:00-9:40 9:50-10:30 10:40-11:20	1.Gonzalez K5 2. Graybill - 1st 3.
Week 8	10/28			Rain Make Ups

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Warmly,

Angie

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