Green Leaf Newsletter

The Green Leaf: Green Academy Newsletter 2.18.20


Hello Community!


Spring is a busy time of the year for all people involved in the outdoors, and the Green Academy is no different. The gardens are being maintained and manicured. Our diligent work is leading to our gardens blooming in extraordinary ways! We are also aiming to complete many new projects in our outdoor learning spaces.


Last semester the Capstone students finished their projects. We installed murals, pollinator gardens, introduced a new flock of chickens, purchased new bee hives, and many other amazing projects.


We were lucky enough to have been awarded two different grants. Both of which are almost finished being spent and established. One was to expand our urban forest and shade canopy on campus. The second was a partnership with Austin Fire Department to construct a demonstration garden on campus to educate our community on gardening with wildfire prevention in mind. There will be two informational signs manufactured and put in place before the end of this semester.



Due to the structure of the Green Academy, we are always working to find ways to fund our projects and innovations. Austin ISD and Small MS have always been supportive of our program. However, beyond our salaries the district and the school provide little to no funding to our program.


Student Lab Fees are used to support small projects and replace basic resources.


For the life of the Academy we have had a biannual plant sale. Our next sale will be on March 12 and 13. We sell student grown native plants, herbs, and vegetables. We will also be selling student created products including goat milk soap and paper embedded with wildflower seeds. The Green Academy Market Days products have been made over the past 2 years.


We are in a constant need of funding. We have 4 educators that have amazing ideas and plans. We are unceasingly searching and applying for grants opportunities. Many other schools are now moving into Environmental education. This is wonderful for the field, but makes it much harder to find a steady source of funds.


Our current plan is to begin a crowdfunding campaign. Austin ISD has partnered with Learning Tree. We are putting together a plan to create a new outdoor learning space. This outdoor learning space will almost double our outdoor seating allotment at Small. The space will be placed in a location that will allow it to be utilized by almost the entire student body. The outdoor space could be used for direct teaching, small group learning, nature observation, or just calm reflection. Research has shown that outdoor education can improve school performance, increase health and child development, and can improve civic attitudes and behaviors. Once our campaign goes live we will notify our wonderful community.


Please remember to support all of our campus programs. Also please visit our Small Gardens blog, www.insmallgardens.blogspot.com, and our Instagram account, @insmallgardens.


Thank you!


Gang Green































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