Students and staff constructed a new greenhouse at Windsor Central Middle School, a milestone in the District’s Agricultural program.
The Lowe’s Gives Foundation awarded the Windsor Central School District $5,000 for the project. The greenhouse will supplement the District’s Agriculture curriculum and provide students with opportunities to take a hands-on approach to learning horticulture.
This greenhouse is the first of three scheduled for construction in the District. A second greenhouse will be built at Windsor Central High School, thanks to another grant from the Lowe’s Gives Foundation. A third greenhouse will be built at a location to be determined. Funds for this will come from the recent $331,000 in federal grant money the District received to help enhance student programming.
“Once the school year begins, 8th graders will take Ag classes and work with our instructor from Cornell Cooperative Extension to expand the curriculum,” said Windsor Central Middle School Principal Kevin Strahley.
All of these greenhouses will expand the District’s emerging Agriculture program, one of seven career pathways the District is developing as part of the Future Ready Knights program. The other pathways are Business/Finance, Health Care, Computer Science, Education, Trades and Engineering.
“The construction of this greenhouse is a major step to providing our students with the experiential learning opportunities necessary to transition their skills from the classroom to the real world. I want to thank Lowe’s for helping us provide this opportunity to our students,” said Dr. Jason Andrews, Superintendent of the Windsor Central School District.
Incoming 6th grader Kaleb Shiner and incoming 8th
graders Tyler Sienko and Eric Miller helped on the build.
“I thought it would be a fun experience to do something new and help the community,” said Sienko.
“I’ve already signed up for the Ag class. I look forward to growing vegetables, then eating them,” said Miller.