School Garden Coordinator

About Climate Corps AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps is a national service commitment that meets a community’s critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. Climate Corps AmeriCorps partners with local government, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations to provide full-time service opportunities in the Bay Area, Southern California, and the Central Valley to support communities’ critical needs for building climate resilience. Climate Corps AmeriCorps Fellows dedicate 900 hours of service in exchange for leadership and career development, and a living stipend supported by an AmeriCorps grant. Climate Corps AmeriCorps is an exciting opportunity for service-minded individuals who are passionate about building climate resilience for communities. For more information, please visit www.americorps.gov or www.climatecorps.org.

About KIPP Prize School
KIPP Prize is a 5-8 charter middle school that opened in 2014 and serves 415 students.

Mission:
At KIPP Prize we know that the prize will not be given to us. We have to earn it. We know that some of the most competitive and robust opportunities in life and career exist in our backyard, and we prepare our students to be able to access those opportunities. We provide a rigorous literacy-based, college-prep curriculum combined with an emphasis on personalized learning, character, and a diverse range of cultural and enrichment experiences to enable our students to access the opportunities in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Vision:
We believe that an excellent school is built when a thriving student and staff culture work in tandem, to climb the mountain to college. The journey to college readiness has its challenges. In partnership with our engaged and active families, we persist by approaching each day of each year with joy and love, drawing on our most joyful and creative moments and keeping our eyes on the prize of our choice.

KIPP has a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Description of duties:

• Manage and oversee school lunch compost program.
• Continue to evolve a 6 bed garden including planning and maintenance. The Garden includes 6 raised beds currently at the beginning stages of implementation.
• Work with 5-10 students during the school day in the school garden on gardening tasks.
• Work outdoors year-round, mostly independently.
• Work in our after-school program, running the school garden club.
• Continue to build out the infrastructure of our school garden including planting, irrigation, and some building.
• Build and maintain a parent volunteer program.
• Compost program: continue managing school lunch compost program including compost maintenance.
• Work closely with the school principal to establish the garden program and create continued benefit for the school community
• Expected schedule: At the school site daily (10:00 am - 6:00 pm)

Basic Eligibility

AmeriCorps fellows must:

• Be US citizens or legal permanent residents
• Have a high school diploma/GED
• Be 17 years old or older
• Pass state criminal and FBI background checks, and a national check-in the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry
• Test negatively for tuberculosis if working with minors
• Be able and willing to commit to the 6-month service term
• Be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing

Desired qualifications/characteristics:

Experience:

• Preferred: At least 2-3 years of facilitation or teaching experience with youth aged 10-14 (outdoor group management experience preferred)-
• Preferred experience working with school gardening programs

Education:

• At least a high school diploma or equivalent is required

Knowledge/skills required:

• Knowledge of gardening, specifically knowledge of innovative and green practice
• Knowledge and skills in small-scale organic food production or home gardening
• Knowledge of or interest in topics including urban gardening, botany, environmental science, health and nutrition, food systems, food access
• Demonstrated ability to work with diverse populations including youth and adults
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including public speaking skills
• Ability to work independently and be flexible
• Computer skills and project management skills
• Regular and reliable attendance and dependability
• Spanish speakers are preferred.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Bay Area Community Resources, the administrator of Climate Corps AmeriCorps, is an equal opportunity employer. We cultivate an environment that encourages fairness, teamwork, and respect among all employees and National Service members. We are firmly committed to maintaining an atmosphere in which people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles may grow personally and professionally. Therefore, we enthusiastically accept our responsibility to make employment decisions without regard to race, religion or religious creed, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, marital status, medical condition, disability, military service, pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local laws or ordinances. Our management is dedicated to ensuring the fulfillment of this equal opportunity policy with respect to hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, recruitment advertising, pay, and other forms of compensation, training, and general treatment during employment.

How to apply:

Apply: https://fm.seiinc.org/climatecorps/jobs/school_garden_coordinator__americorps_52A233.html