Newsletters 2013-14 Focus newsletter, [1] fall | Page 15

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy’s garden allows
community to heal, students to learn

B

ird Janhonen gets teary-eyed when she starts
talking about the community garden at
Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy (CBPA).

Her son is a fifth grader at the school and the two
of them have been leaders on the garden project that
has helped heal and inspire the school with determination, beauty and unique educational opportunities.
“This has really brought this school and community together,” Janhonen said. “Closing the other
schools was tough—it was hard for everyone—and
this has given everyone something to take ownership
of.”
CBPA is pretty new, born from the rather controversial 2010 closure of two other elementary schools
and a kindergarten center.
Once the student populations from Riverview
elementary—which happened to be the AnokaHennepin School District’s first specialty school—
and Champlin elementary were merged into what is
now CBPA, there was a lot of healing and work to do,
retired Principal Marilyn McKeehen said.
“We literally need to build trust and respect for
this school,” she said.
When CBPA opened, it took over Riverview’s
status as a math and environmental science
specialty school, but the building wasn’t particularly
welcoming, McKeehen said.
“This is a magnet school. Our goal is to attract.
Juniper bushes and thistles from 1984 don’t really
do that,” she joked.

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