ESP of the Year ‘has this way about her’
ESP of the Year ‘has this way about her’
Jean Conley,
Editor/Writer
After success with garden, Haverhill’s Nancy Burke starts an orchard
On a steaming hot day in July, the learning garden at Haverhill High School is alive with the sounds of Summer Program students and educators watering, weeding the plants, laughing and enjoying the fruits of their labors.
Strawberries are in abundance. Basil, chives, cilantro and summer flowers scent the air. The fruits and vegetables are coming along nicely in garden beds, which are raised to waist height so students in wheelchairs can reach them easily.
The garden, in what was once a trash-strewn interior courtyard, never would have come about without the vision, persistence and direction of Nancy Burke, who was named MTA’s 2017 Education Support Professional of the Year in April.
Burke, a paraprofessional who works with some of the school’s most challenged special education students in the life skills program, reclaimed the unused space several years ago so she could get her students outside in the fresh air, show them where their food comes from, and help them develop a sense of accomplishment.
Recently, Burke’s ambitions have expanded again. This time, she has reclaimed another courtyard in the school, and an orchard has taken root.
"This was another courtyard that was abandoned and not doing anything," says Burke, pointing to a corner of the lot. "Thigh-high grass. Trash. It was disgusting."
The courtyard is now alive with apple, plum and pear trees. "Everything is on a trellis system," Burke explains. "The trees are all dwarf, so they won’t get any higher than eight feet." When the trees grow up, she adds, they will grow over the trellis "so anyone in a wheelchair can go down the center aisle and pick all the apples they want. The walkers can be on the outside, and we’ll put flowers in the corner and blueberries along the wall."
Burke received a Learning and Leadership Grant from the National Education Association last spring to help with expenses. She said that without the grant, she’d be "struggling to get this done."
There are plans to add benches and a watering system. A shed has been donated, and seedlings will be grown in a brand new greenhouse, a gift from the Class of 2016. On both walls of the hallway leading out to the orchard, art students plan to paint murals.
Fellow educators are equally excited. A math teacher whose classroom faces the courtyard donated money for a patio so she can bring her students outside.
The orchard "will be the most beautiful green space in the school, for everyone to use," Burke says, adding that "a great deal of ‘Hillie Pride’" has gone into the project.
"I am truly grateful for all the love and support from the students and staff of Haverhill High School," she notes.
"My goal here," she adds, "is that I wanted to bring the garden and the orchard to the kids. A lot of students live in a food desert. They do not have exposure to fresh, healthy foods. Some of my kids never get out and go to an orchard. They’ve never picked an apple or a blueberry in their lives.
"But here’s the big thing," Burke continues. "I’ve managed to get a lot of folks involved. They want to be involved. Everyone from the Student Council to the new Garden Club, the football and wrestling teams, Junior ROTC, they will never forget doing this — and the impact it made on their peers whocan’tdo things — for their entire lives."
"Nancy just attracts good people. She just has this way about her," Arakelow says. "She took on so much responsibility to give her students an opportunity for something great."
In late September, Burke’s students will hold their fall harvest, rummaging through the potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, and other late-summer vegetables to find the finest specimens. Those will be entered into the Topsfield Fair, where Burke’s students won blue First Place ribbons last year.
With the garden in full gear and the orchard project underway, Burke reflects on how the learning garden she envisioned for her students became a lesson in empathy and giving back for the whole community.
And then she is off again, planning for what should be done with all the food being grown.
"I want us to grow enough to take care of all the programs here at the high school," she says. That includes "students in the coffee café who cook food and serve it to people" and the ESPs "who do the cooking for all the students in the building."
"I have big plans," she says with a laugh. "I do."
This story initially appeared in the Summer 2017 edition of MTA Today.