PRINCETON: District to hire garden educators for all four elementary schools

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton school district will pay for having garden educators at all four elementary schools in a move relieving the financial burden from parents to raise the money to cover that expense.
“The idea is to have one for each school,” said assistant Superintendent for human resources Lewis Goldstein by phone on Tuesday.
The part-time, 12-month job will pay $10,000 salary with no benefits, he said.
Princeton has for more than a decade embraced having gardens in its public schools, seen as a way to teach children where their food comes from and also to help broaden their palates, said Fran McManus, one of the founders and current board member of Princeton School Gardens Cooperative. The 10-year-old organization promotes both the education of gardens and food too, all through a hands-on approach.
In the past, it was mostly up to parent teacher organizations and the Cooperative to come up with the money to pay the educators. The Cooperative would give anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 annually, within the past several years, to each of the elementary schools for that purpose, Ms. McManus said.
But the district decided to pick up the expense, school board president Andrea Spalla said Tuesday in citing the educational benefits in instructing children about food, gardening and nutrition.
“We’re really excited about it,” Ms. McManus said of that decision.
The garden educators, who have not been hired yet, will need to provide lessons for children in pre-school up to the fifth grade, according to the district. The district started advertising for the positions last week, Mr. Goldstein said.
The school district already covers the cost of maintaining the gardens. Once hired, the educators will have care for the garden in the summer when schools are on break, Mr. Goldstein said.
The gardens also are used during the school year for other subjects as outdoor classrooms. Ms. McManus said teachers use them for art, history and science as well.