New Haven Independent

The board instituted the learning center’s guidelines that permit gardeners to garden during center hours but the same guidelines bar them from any contact with children.

Frank Carrano, (pictured), the chairman of the Board of Education, said every possible step has been taken to resolve the stand-off.

“I think everyone has acted very responsibly.” he said. “On the other hand, I don’t think we can allow our community to be defined by fear not based on reasonable assumptions.”

The clash between some parents of pre-schoolers, the center’s executive director, Beryl Meiner, who initially approved the garden project, and the gardeners, led to a ban that prevented the gardeners from gardening during weekdays for two weeks in June. Had there been no resolution, the new community gardens might have been forced to close.

For those two weeks, at the parents’ insistence, gardeners were banned from their plots during school hours, from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. That ban has now been lifted, although gardeners may not park in the center’s lot between 7:30 and 9 a.m.

First Selectman Unk DaRos was determined to keep the gardens going, he said in an interview.

Carrano told the board he took full responsibility for the project, “for pushing it forward.” He said at a board of education meeting last week that the parents’ reaction came “as a total shock to me. ” He said it was inconceivable to him that children might be endangered by the gardeners because the pre-schoolers were always under supervision.

The guidelines put forth by the center’s board of directors are a list of don’ts ,including not entering the school for any reason not driving any vehicles on to the garden area during school hours. Several board members expressed reluctance about approving the rules at a 90-minute meeting attended by some 40 parents and gardeners (pictured), 13 of whom spoke.

Some parents told the board they were concerned about cars parking or driving too close to the children’s recreation area. Others said they were concerned about people they did not know, including the families of gardeners.

One parent said plans were lacking in moving the space to a “two-use” purpose. For example, parking, bathroom facilities and getting water to the gardens were addressed only recently, when the first selectman stepped in.

Meiner had voiced concerns about not smoking and picking up trash, but the other issues were not raised, according to Connie Drysdale, the community garden president who spoke at the meeting.

Maria Juliano, the vice-president of the center’s board, said that the center is not a private for-profit facility. She told the board it is a non-profit agency primarily supported by state grants that enables “affordable, very affordable daycare to low-income families. Branford should be extremely proud to have this center in its town.” The center pays the town $1 a year to rent the former Pine Orchard Grammar School.” If the center had to pay rent, the costs would be prohibitive.

“The fact is that our children, our toddlers, our babies are there. And strangers are coming on the property. I don’t know about anybody else, but my mother always taught me, don’t talk to strangers.”

According to a 2008 independent audit obtained by the Eagle, the center received a $360,032 grant from the state’s Department of Social Services. It is dependent upon this grant for survival. The report says that in 2008 day care was provided to 8 infants and 37 pre-school age children. Fees are on a sliding scale, depending upon a parent’s income. It is not clear if the center is open only to Branford parents or if its enrollment extends to other communities. Nor is it clear if it is only available to low-income families. Because it is has a charitable designation, it pays no taxes.

Carrano, an ardent supporter of the new community garden, suggested the site and presented the idea for approval at the March board meeting. The Board of Education, which owns the property, had enthusiastically endorsed the idea in March. But by June several board members said a garden is one thing, guidelines involving conduct were another. They were unsure if their authority extended to this area.

The relationship of the early learning center to the Board of Education centers on property, not programs, two board members, John Prins and Peter Berdon, argued. They along with board member Michael Krause said they want to revisit the garden issue before the spring of 2010. In the end, however, the full board affirmed “the guidelines for gardeners.”

Prins said he was uncomfortable with a section of the guidelines barring gardeners from having any contact with the children because this sort of segregation was antithetical to learning. “Why shouldn’t children understand how things grow, why shouldn’t they get their hands dirty?” He said he did not know how he could vote for something that was so against his educational philosophy.

But Carrano made it clear that interaction with kids was a deal breaker.

“These are the center’s guidelines. They have made it clear; speaking to the children, saying hello to the children, is not going to happen. This is not our program; it is theirs.”

Prins replied: “I would have to imagine that there are some parents and possibly some gardeners who would love to be able to interact and I would hate to restrict them in such a final way.”

Carrano said: “This is their final, absolutely final request. If there is a change of heart on that they will seek it… But they have made it absolutely clear that they don’t want anyone speaking to the children,” he said.

Prins said he hoped that that the center would “soften their position and get the kids involved in gardening. Carrano replied: “I understand.”

Looking back at the March meeting, Prins said that the board as a whole “didn’t make it clear in our action that we took that evening was contingent upon some things being put in place… My assumption and I am sorry to say I should not assume, was that these things should have taken place before the garden was actually installed. So we have a garden now. The way I would go forward is to say there is clearly common ground , as a speaker expressed earlier. She said we are both interested in seeing things grow and I thought that was elegant and profound.”

Another gardener, Ellen Shirey, who gardens with her husband and her 16 year old son viewed the activity as a way to spend time together this summer “doing something that sounded like fun — gardening and raising vegetables, some of which are to be donated to the community food bank. How can something so wholesome and family oriented be turned into something so bad? We can tell you that the fund went out of the project long ago.

“But we want to persist,” she told the board. “It’s important to stand up for our rights as well as the rights of others in the community to participate in activities that are helpful and educational.”

Shirey, who read the letter signed by herself and her husband, Bill Whobrey, said the garden hours must include weekdays.

“The garden area is well marked, the gardeners are all registered. We have agreed to many restrictions on the use of the space already, to include parking and access. (The gardeners also wear name tags.) There will be no interaction between gardeners and school children or staff.

“We assume the children are carefully monitored outside and we will monitor ourselves just as carefully. It is simply unreasonable, even in this day and age, to see a potential threat in every activity around children. This kind of rhetoric destroys communities and discourages every project hat might offend anyone in any way, regardless of how baseless those fears might be.”

Administrative Police Lt. Geoffrey Morgan (pictured) told the board that “no one is more concerned for the safety of our children than our police department, this board, the center’s board, the first selectman’s office. This goes without saying. At the same time, the Branford police department is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all people.”

He added that spoke with DaRos about fences, water and sanitation issues. “I know that Connie Drysdale has gone through a process of badging all the people. Our office is committed to helping the board in any way shape or fashion as you go forward and we will work with you to provide additional information on how to identify strangers and suspicious activity.”

After outlining the history of the project, Drysdale said “the police department does a fine job and they should be alerted if there are suspicious activities. However, a vegetable garden is not a suspicious activity.”

Then by voice vote the full nine-member board (pictured )reaffirmed the right of the gardeners to garden during the day on town land — as long as they ignore all children.

###