STUDENTS TO HELP CREATE WATER-STINGY GARDEN
(For use by NYT News Service clients)
By BARBARA JONES
c. 2012 Los Angeles Daily News
LOS ANGELES — Despite the best efforts of a cadre of supporters, the landscaping around the LAPD’s Topanga Station has gotten a little scraggly, a problem caused by the wrong mix of sun, soil and shrubbery.
Over the next several months, however, the six-acre site will be transformed into a sustainable garden of native plants, thanks to an innovative partnership announced Tuesday by the Topanga Boosters, the nonprofit Theodore Payne Foundation and LAUSD’s Miller Career and Transition Center.
The Boosters, a group of volunteers that raises money to buy supplemental materials and equipment for the Topanga Station, is providing $7,500 for plants and supplies, while horticulturists from the Theodore Payne Foundation will provide the know-how.
And performing the back-breaking work of replacing the water-guzzling grasses and shrubs with eco-friendly plants is a landscaping crew from Miller, which provides job and life-skills training for mentally disabled students.
“Thanks to the Theodore Payne Foundation, we’ll have the types of native plants that can be nurtured in this part of the Valley,” said Capt. Tom Brascia, the station’s commanding officer. “And the students from Miller School will make this a nice place for people to come to and see.”
Brascia also hopes that other local groups will be inspired by the work, and will participate in an “Adopt A Station” effort to help maintain the grounds.
Lynnette Kampe, executive director of the Theodore Payne Foundation, said the Miller crew will be putting in plants that use one-seventh the amount of water of traditional landscaping, and provide 10 times the value in terms of natural habitat.
“They’ll be part of something that is bigger than themselves,” she said. “They’ll be connected to nature.”
Miller’s landscaping program is one of more than a dozen offered at the Reseda campus, the first in Los Angeles Unified to transition from a traditional “special-education school” to one that focuses on preparing its students for the workforce. LAUSD operates three other schools like Miller, which serves students ages 14-22 with mild to moderate disabilities.
“Our students have gifts and talents and want to get out in society so they can give back,” said Miller Principal Wayne Foglesong, who has been involved in special education for more than three decades. “They want to make a living for themselves.”
Students take math and English, but also are taught “soft skills” like punctuality and attentiveness. For two periods each day they rotate through work programs such as auto detailing, culinary arts, graphic arts, construction and office work.
The landscaping students began working on the LAPD project a couple of weeks ago, and will resume work when summer school starts in July.
Among them is 20-year-old Andy Garcia — “like the movie star,” he said — whose favorite task is operating the lawnmower.
Garcia has been at Miller for five years and looks forward to two more. He loves performing in the drama club and competing on the High 5 sports team.
He proudly describes how he learned about overtime while studying the multiplication tables in math class and how to fill out a job application and set career goals in English class.
“I want to be a host in a restaurant,” he said.
Teacher Brian Anderson, who oversees the grounds crew, is wrapping up his first year at Miller after working four years in a special-ed program at another LAUSD school.
“I’d heard about Miller and wanted to be part of it because of its positive outlook for students with disabilities,” Anderson said. “They think about the students first, and look at their ability instead of their disability, what they can do instead of what they can’t.”
