In a meeting room overflowing with neighborhood residents and supporters, the TUSD governing board voted unanimously Tuesday to transform a long-shuttered school into an urban farm and community space for the surrounding neighborhood.
Flowers and Bullets Collective, a group that aims to create outlets for under-served youth and communities, will lease Julia Keen Elementary from TUSD.
"It's real exciting," said H.T. Sanchez, TUSD's superintendent. "Keen has been a silent space for over a decade. Flowers and Bullets wants to improve the neighborhood and provide kids with access to organic fruits and veggies. It's impressive and we want to be a part of it. We really believe in this."
More than half in attendance were supporters of Flowers & Bullets. They wore Flowers & Bullets t-shirts or red paper bracelets for solidarity.
All of them stood up, applauded, hugged and yelled in excitement when the entire governing board voted yes.
"I'm extremely excited and happy for the work ahead," said Tito Romero, one of the collective's founding members and former Keen student. "The real work is about to start now."
A crowd of Flowers & Bullets supporters and members cheer after the TUSD governing board voted to lease the shuttered Julia Keen Elementary School to the collective so they can turn it into an urban farm and community center.
A place for community
When the school closed in 2004, neighborhood residents lost a big part of their community.
"It was our voting booth, where we got vaccinations, where we had holiday parties," Romero said.
The collective hopes the space will create an anchor for the neighborhood and a place for kids to play, like when the school was open.
"We've been planning for the last two years organizing it. I've been doing it for my son," said Brandon Alexander, a member of Flowers & Bullets. "When I was younger I went to Keen. Just to have a community center and a place to play so my son can meet people. Right now he doesn't have a swing to swing on or kids to play with like I did."
Peggy Agredano has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. All six of her kids attended Keen, as did her six grandchildren.
"When they closed the school, we lost our community area. It was very hard for the neighborhood,"Agredano said. "These kids are trying to create a community space and are working hard to show people how to sustain themselves outside of Fry's. It'll be a real advantage for the whole neighborhood, so the kids have something to call their own."
The plan
After identifying their neighborhood, which is near South Alvernon Way and East 29th Street, as an under-served community with lack of green spaces and limited access to fresh produce, Flowers & Bullets got to work on a proposal to lease Julia Keen Elementary School from TUSD.
There will be a farm, art and education workshops and a neighborhood farmers market.
The collective estimates it will produce an annual supply of 120,000 pounds of food, 1.1 million gallons of harvested rainwater, $220,000 in revenue from fruit and vegetable sales and 20 education workshops for 500 participants.
For now, all the work will be done by the 23 families and 13 core members of the collective on a volunteer basis.
But, the goal is to create a sustainable place where people can be employed, said Michael Aragon, a member of Flowers and Bullets.
Jacob Robles, left, uses a pitchfork to turn over a pile of goat manure, vegetables and alfalfa while his friend Armando Sotelo rakes it all in a pile at the home of Tito Romero. Romero uses the compost to fertilize his backyard garden.
The lease
Flowers and Bullets Collective will enter a five-year lease with TUSD that includes an automatic renewal for an additional five-year term, unless either party cancels.
There will be no rent for the first year, but the collective will pay for utilities, repairs and maintenance.
For the next four years, rent of the premises will be $37,200 per year. During the second term, rent will go up to $42,000 per year.
Flowers and Bullets will have the option to lease-to-own the property, and it intends to.
"We definitely want to purchase it," said Jason Aragon, a member of the collective. "We're setting up a financial plan to do that."
TUSD board member, Michael Hicks gave a heartfelt thank you to Flowers and Bullets at the meeting:
"As the one member who actually went to that school a few years back, I'm extremely happy we're putting something in there for the community. By the way, I'm still in the community, so I'll be coming around a lot. I just want to thank the organization for helping do something with the Julia Keen area."
