Birchwood elementary and Shuksan Middle school become a part of Whatcom County School Garden Collective

School projects have evolved as Shuksan Middle School and Birchwood elementry take on gardening for their school grounds

Birchwood elementary and Shukan middle school have newly became members and are a part of the Whatcom county school collectives which are a part of common thread farms. Whatcom collective is an organization that assists schools throughout the county on gardening projects.

Gardening on school grounds have already been put in efforts as committees of middle school students and parents at Shuksan have already started their first project, gardener educator, Tessa Bundy, who has been assigned to work with the Shuksan middle school project said, “We are going to start with small projects beginning with the design of SMS in the front of the school grounds”.

The project took the group of students and volunteers around three hours, Bundy said, “a lot of the time spent was the set up process of the formatting of soil and chips, the next two letters we apply will go by much faster”. The team of volunteer started their first work party on one of the projects earlier this month where the group worked from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Homestead Habitat which is located in the Bellingham area assisted the group of volunteers on there first work party on creating the first “S” on Shuksan school grounds.

How Shuksan became apart of Whatcom Collectives

How Shuksan became a part of the collectives was by the efforts of a local parent, Bill Angle, who currently has a child attending shuksan middle school. Shuksan which was newly rebuilt this earlier this year doesn’t have much gardening done to the school that symbolizes the schools originality, students and parents want more a personalized spin on the grounds of Shuksan. Adrienne Battis, President of Birchwood Neighborhood Association, said, “I don’t know much about the project but I think what they are doing is great and will defiantly, make the schools look beautiful”.

Funds for the project

Funding for the project came from the Whatcom collectives in a loan based form. Other funds came from parent, teacher, and business donations. Angle said, “Efforts of how to pay back the loan that was collected from the Whatcom collectives will be discussed at the next work party on May 15th”. The committee has been working with the Cordata starbucks, which has been showing interest in funding the group for their future projects.

The company provided lunch for the group on their first work party that was held earlier this month. Other organizations that have helped supply the group with donations is the Growsource gardening company which helped supply materials for the project. Park services also helped with donation of materials for the project, they provided woodchips for the project from left over supplies that they had in stock.

Upcoming projects in store for Shuksan

Future projects have not been discussed yet but Bundy says the group is excited for the upcoming projects that they wish to think up. As of right now the group does not have set meeting dates due to the fact they just started this committee. They also don’t have a group of set people that will permanently be a part of the gardening project, Bundy said, “a lot of the people who have helped so far, were just volunteers that don’t know if they have time to be fully committed to the committee for the long run”.

The group is open to anyone who would love to join and become a part of the committee. The second meeting will be open to anyone who would like to join and learn more about the club.


Learn more about Whatcom Collectives at:
http://www.commonthreadsfarm.org/content/view/22/36/

Plans for Shuksan middle school as they to prepare take on students from Whatcom

Administration and School officials begin to prepare for the transfer of the entire 7th grade class to attend Shuksan middle school in the fall.

Pressure is beginning to rise for the staff and faculty at Shuksan middle school as they prepare for next fall, as they plan to take on two hundred plus students from Whatcom Middle School. Class capacity, schedules, and finding room for filing of these students were some of the main concerns brought up by attendance secretary Kim Schmitt.

Whatcom fire and where students are set to attend

On Nov. 9, Whatcom middle school burst into flames around 1 a.m, destroying the oldest and most historic school in the Bellingham district. Flames destroyed an historic building and hurt many of those who saw Whatcom as a home. With this devastation came the loss of an institution for over five hundred middle school students. Cause of the fire is still under investigation, the aftermath however caused Whatcom students to be immediately split up and have 6th graders attend Geneva elementary. While 7th graders attend Fairhaven middle school, and 8th graders attend Bellingham high school. Resulting in a huge change to the schools current class size, curriculum, scheduling, and staffing making it a lot more difficult to handle. Plans for next year involve moving the 8th grade class to Fairhaven middle school while 6th graders will stay at Geneva and 7th graders of around two hundred students will move to Shuksan middle school.


With the arrival of these additional students Shuksan plans on adding portables on its school grounds to accommodate the extra students attending in the fall. “Room is our biggest concern and managing paperwork” said office assistant to the principal Peggie Foster. Shucksan which currently was just newly remodeled and opened this year hold 700 students currently which is not over its buildings capacity. This was one of the main reasons the school district decided to transfer the current 7th grade class from Whatcom middle school to Shuksan.

Students concerns

Current 7th and 8th graders show concern for the additional students attending expressing that things have become a lot stricter this year with the current remodel of the school. They feel that with the additional students coming in, school is not going to be a fun environment anymore. With administration rushing to figure out how everything is going to work including the student’s curriculum, students feel they will just be constantly being told what to do.

Staff and faculty

Bellingham school district expressed that teachers currently from Whatcom will be incorporated into the staff of the schools of which they are transferred to and will work together for the upcoming school year. Currently Shuksan, Geneva, and Fairhaven are still working out the plans and hope to make the transition as smoothly as possible for the students.

Student set to be at Shuksan and the other middle school for the next two years as Whatcom is being remodeled. Remodeling has already started on Whatcom with the exterior walling of the school. Whatcom is set to be completely remodeled by the 2012 school year. The Nov. 5 fire not only affected the students of Whatcom middle school, but also the hundred of other students in the Bellingham school district.