Thursday, March 28, 2024

School district delays Fernwood garden decision until the end of May

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The Greater Victoria School District (SD61) is delaying a final decision on the removal of Baby Arlo’s Garden until the end of the month after significant pushback from the Fernwood community.

The district said in a tweet May 4th that the garden would “remain for the time being as the District looks into the issue.”

Baby Arlo’s Garden is a self-funded garden that is kept on an unmaintained patch of land  in Haegert Park.

The district notified the garden’s owners that they had to remove all plants by Monday, May 7th. The land technically sits on Victoria High School property.

Read Victoria Buzz’s original report here.

Garden’s founders thanks community for support

Mands Burnette, whose husband Andrew Poucher founded the garden, says the school board notified them that the garden can stay until the district makes a final decision.

Burnette and Poucher will also be given a five-minute speaking spot at a school board operations meeting on Wednesday, May 16th.

The pair credits their friends and neighbours in the Fernwood community for convincing the school board to delay its decision.

“We’re so honoured by all of the people in the community that have supported the Garden over the past little bit, [and] our online petition has been shared by many of the local Fernwood businesses,” Burnette wrote in an email to Victoria Buzz.

That online petition was well on its way to 500 signatures at time of writing. Victoria city councillor Jeremy Loveday also voiced his support on Twitter.

We’ll have more to come on this story as it develops.

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Myles Sauer
Former staff editor and writer at Victoria Buzz.

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