Last school year, the Independent Living Skills Class, advised by special education teacher Bridget Hardiman, maintained a small garden outside the school, which provided students with a hands-on learning experience centered on the plant cycle. After realizing the positive impact the activity left on her students, Hardiman went further, applying for a $6,700 grant from the Sprouts Healthy Community Foundation in June for a larger on-campus garden. And just two months later, this proposal was approved by the foundation and Central Kitsap High School’s Principal Alex Chertok.
“The key part on this one was making sure that we had a plan through her program to maintain it long term,” Chertok said. “We’re building it so that it is somewhat portable, like it’s raised beds on wheels and things like that, so if we need to change location, or if in six years, the group doesn’t want to do that, they want to do something else with the materials, we’ve got the flexibility to adjust in the future if we need to.”
The location of the garden will be between the main and Career and Technical Education building, specifically on the lawn closest to the gym’s North Corridor exit. This area, along with the design for the garden, was intentionally created to allow all students, regardless of their needs, to be involved in the experience of tending to a variety of greenery.
“Ours is going to be as accessible as we can make it,” Hardiman said. “So that means that everything is going to be in raised beds, so that someone in a wheelchair or someone who has mobility needs will still be able to participate.”
While the on-campus garden won’t be implemented until March or April of 2026, Hardiman discussed a temporary in-door garden that will be used in the meantime for students within the ILS class. This activity’s purpose is to prepare students with high support needs for life after high school, as the gardening opportunity opens doors towards sheltered job experience at farms local to Silverdale, WA.
“We really focus on life skills and what students are going to be doing post high school, and for a lot of students in this type of program, they’re not going to go to college,” Hardiman said. “They’re hopefully going to stay in their local community. They’re hopefully going to gain some sort of sheltered job experience within their local community. And so working in a garden, especially in Kitsap County, where we have so many local farms and people who have those leisure skills related to gardening, it’s a great life skill for students to learn while also having that ownership and that pride in building something themselves.”
Once the garden is established at CKHS, Hardiman plans to develop a garden club, where students from the general and special education can unite, collaborating with one another to maintain the future plants and produce.
“I really want it to be an inclusive space for all students,” Hardiman said. “I think that we’re really looking into bridging the gap between special education services and the general education population in this building, and also in this district.”
The grant given to the ILS program from the Sprouts Healthy Community Foundation was made possible because of the local community’s support, as these grants are fueled by customers that round up to the dollar after each purchase.
“What I want everybody to know is that when our pin pads ask people to round up, the funds go towards grants,” Silverdale Sprouts Store Manager Josh Ralston said. “…The money that is donated here at this store from our customers went back to [Central Kitsap High School] and this community.”
