Spring coming soon, BUT Spring semester in full swing.

Even though a cold front came through again dropping temperatures into the 30s and 40s, we are already seeing the signs that Spring is right around the corner. The verbena and standing cypress are already blooming vivid purples and reds.

The greenhouse is beginning to no longer be a refuge for frigid students getting out of a frozen north wind. All of the doors and windows now must be instantly opened to make it less a sweat lodge prior to a spirit walk. Even though the kids may be annoyed the plants are loving the climate in the greenhouse. Even surface is covered in new seedlings, yearlings, and clones. There is an amazing amount of maintenance to be done on the gardens. All classes are maintaining different areas of campus. Completing weeding, pruning, and a new layer of mulch. Each garden looks fresh and new as the old is replaced and we can see where weeding could have been completed more diligently. Each next step a chance for a new teaching/learning moment. The vegetable gardens  have been oveturned. A few new key hole gardens have even been constructed taking advantage of our leaves and compost.

Mr. Rosenberg and Mr. Brooks each took on new electives this semester. With the help of the Eco-Rise program, Mr.R used his extra class to start a design challenge. The projects they have decided to take on will be completing a new pond ecosystem powered by renewable resources, a new edible garden that will be used to calculate the amount of space needed to supply the cafeteria with all school grown crops, a recycling program that will create swings for the school, and if time permits the irrigation of our student created forests. These are all great projects and all will be successful with student commitments. Mr. Brooks is also heading up a design class, an ethics class, and the culminating class of the Green Academy, our independent study. Each new class and project becomes a new unexpected experience when we get a new group of kids and we all have to learn how to work effectively together.

Things are going well. We hope to complete many projects this semster while still maintaining our basic duties. Plans for the Spring Plant Sale in April are in full swing. Plans for the community garden are still in the works. More information will follow.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.
John Muir