NEWPORT — A garden in front of the old Newport High School building on Eighth Street is blooming as the result of a lesson from the World Peace Bell Education Program.

Learning Academy students Amanda Wynn (left), Gary Mays (foreground) and John Ewing work on the Peace Garden outside their school in Newport. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Students from the Learning Academy located in the former high school building that now also houses Newport Middle School joined with local school and civic officials to dedicate the peace garden Thursday.

        “We were working with some academy students through the education program last spring and developed the idea of a peace garden on the school grounds,” said Cynthia Goodman, executive director of the World Peace Bell Education Program. “The students have been really enthusiastic about it.”

        The garden has three plots, each with a different design and all planted with mums for the fall season. The three designs are a star, a 1970s peace symbol, and a heart.

        Newport Board of Education Chairman Tete Turner, who attended the dedication with Newport City Manager Phil Ciafardini, praised the peace garden as “the kind of positive activity we need so badly right now with everything that has happened in our nation.”

        Also working with the students on the peace garden are Learning Academy Principal Demetria Choice, language arts and science teacher Morgan Johnson, and members of the Civic Garden Center of Cincinnati.

        “I'm really impressed that the students pulled all this together,” Ms. Johnson said. “These are city kids who don't know anything about gardening. They've never worked with garden tools or plants, but they're learning and they seem to enjoy it.”

        Ms. Goodman said the plan is to change the flowers with the seasons. The mums planted Thursday were donated by Natorp's Garden Stores.

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