Citing ‘miscommunication,’ district mows native plants, vegetable swales in Free State garden down to dirt

Post updated at 9:42 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17:

Multiple instances of mowing and other damage to Free State High School’s outdoor learning space is giving educators in that space the impression that the Lawrence school district is prioritizing looks over learning.

Julie Schwarting, Free State science teacher and Garden and Environmental Club sponsor, said when she approached her school’s garden on July 25, she discovered it in a drastically different state than before.

“I showed up that afternoon, and one of the gardeners showed up at the same time, and we just looked at each other like, ‘Oh my God,’” Schwarting said. “It was just like a desert.”

A group of the “Green Team” student gardeners had been watering the annual vegetable swales and tending to the native plant pollinator rain garden throughout the summer. They self-organized a schedule and assigned shifts, Schwarting said.

All they had been tending to was mowed flat without warning due to a “miscommunication,” according to the district. 

Schwarting said she immediately sent an email that day to her school’s principal, Amy McAnarney. She said McAnarney apologized and took responsibility for the miscommunication as the Free State grounds maintenance crew members were unsure what they were supposed to mow.

The evening before, Schwarting said, she saw an email from McAnarney. McAnarney said the district was concerned about the “weedy” appearance of the garden, located on the east side of the building, as the new school year was approaching. Schwarting said she responded and scheduled a work day to weed with the gardeners, and the school’s National Honor Society had agreed to help, too; however, they never had the chance.

“As often happens with school gardens that are challenging to maintain, especially during the summer months, this one became overgrown with weeds,” district spokesperson Julie Boyle said via email. “The building administration worked with its grounds crew on a plan to clean it up for the start of school. There was a misunderstanding about that plan, and it was mowed. This was unintentional. We are sorry it occurred and understand the concerns, especially from staff and students who had worked on the project.”

McAnarney responded Friday afternoon to an email request for comment that “what Julie shared sums things up pretty well.” She did not comment further.

Although Schwarting agrees it was unintentional, she said this isn’t the first time it’s occurred.

‘An ongoing trend’

Around the same time last year, Schwarting said the district also requested the garden be tidied up. Schwarting agreed the grass had grown tall and appeared weedy, and she didn’t mind some sprucing. She said she told McAnarney mowing would be fine but asked the area not be mowed down to the dirt. It’s prairie, so it’d grow back, she said. 

But by the time she returned to school, the maintenance crew had sprayed herbicides and seeded Free State’s Outdoor Commons back to non-native grass.

“There were still a lot of flowers and plants in there, and that was the area that Deerfield (Elementary School) students had helped plant,” Schwarting said. “There had been a lot of effort that went into it. I just feel like it was a convenience thing, and I get that, but it’s also kind of an ongoing trend with the district.”

Schwarting said it seems projects are sometimes vetoed to maintain appearances. Looking through an ecological lens, she said, that’s limiting to students.

“Students can’t do some things because it doesn’t look good,” she said. “If we’re just going to keep this suburban, upper-middle-class ideal of what the outdoors should look like, very groomed and manicured, with a lot of emphasis on fossil fuels and, you know, pesticides and all of that stuff, are we allowing the creative and diverse nature of our people to exist there?”

During the 2022-23 school year, each school site in the district had its own garden or greenhouse for the first time in the district’s history. Propelled by the district’s Farm 2 School program, students participate in after-school clubs, learn about growing food as part of curriculum and work on projects in their gardens.

Pantaleon Florez III, the district’s Farm 2 School coordinator and experiential learning specialist, wrote a letter in his capacity as a farmer and district site council industry partner, advocating for what he called “living classrooms.” Florez was the next person Schwarting contacted after McAnarney the day the garden was mowed over, she said. He sent his letter to the school board a few days later.

“We embrace the mess in other learning spaces and provide space and grace to ‘fail,’ so I ask that some mess be embraced here too, rather than answered with swift destruction,” Florez wrote in the letter.

Florez said in addition to two summers in a row of mishaps, a “mature, fruit-laden pear tree” was chopped down last fall, as well.

If community coverage like this matters to you, please support The Lawrence Times.
Click here to subscribe.

Board Vice President GR Gordon-Ross said when board members received Florez’s letter, they forwarded it on to Deputy Superintendent Larry Englebrick, who’s the acting superintendent until newly hired interim superintendent Jeanice Swift begins her position. Englebrick investigated and reported back to the board.

“It was an unfortunate accident. No one is to blame,” Gordon-Ross said via email. “We support the garden project and the building administration working with the staff and students involved on a plan to move forward.”

Gordon-Ross said the board does not plan to respond directly to Florez because Englebrick has kept the board informed. He said Englebrick has communicated with Florez about meeting next week to discuss the matter in person.

Florez did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this article.

‘Every aspect of the ecosystem is invaluable’

Many of the school gardens have community partnerships. 

One of Free State’s is Courtney Masterson, ecologist and executive director of Native Lands Restoration Collaborative. She’s also on a Career and Technical Education advisory board for the district.

“She donated so much of her time to helping us grow those native plants and put in those native gardens, and then just to have them wiped out …” Schwarting said. “And she’s one of our community partners. I don’t think the district knows how many people are contributing to the education of our students.”

Masterson said in her community work, it’s normal for native restoration projects to be mysteriously mowed down, both accidentally and maliciously.

MORE: Lawrence ecologists’ efforts thwarted by mystery mowers, both mistaken and malfeasant, July 12, 2024

Masterson is concerned about experiential learning for Lawrence students facing that threat as “every aspect of the ecosystem is invaluable and hopefully inspirational to them.”

“When I think about equating experience with your hands in a native garden or a food garden at school to you ending up in a career that protects our water, our wildlife, our soil, our food systems, I mean, that’s what we want to see our students doing is making the world a better place,” she said. “This is how we do that.”

This fall semester, students won’t be able to observe the plants that were growing before being mowed over.

“Certainly people were aware that these gardens were important to the students and to the faculty,” Masterson said. “I’d really love to see not just teachers fighting for these spaces, but I’d really love to see unity across our school district.”

Boyle said Free State’s administrators will create a plan with teachers to replant and further maintain Free State’s garden.

The vegetables aren’t a major loss, Schwarting said, as those need to be replanted at the beginning of every school year anyway. Fortunately, herbicides were not sprayed over the area this time.

And because prairie plants have their roots dug deep, they’ve got a good chance of making a comeback.

Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

• Instagram
• Twitter

Latest Lawrence news:

MORE …