STRATTANVILLE — Clarion-Limestone officials are hopeful that a new greenhouse will help grow hands-on learning programs in the school district.
The new greenhouse, located next to the elementary school playground area on the C-L campus, was officially opened on Tuesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“We’re super excited about the opportunities presented to us by our new greenhouse,” Clarion-Limestone principal Rob Sintobin said in greeting those gathered for the event.
He credited the Clarion-Limestone Foundation and others in the community for backing the project financially, and said the district’s maintenance department did the bulk of the work on the new site.
“It really takes a community,” Sintobin said.
Located on the same spot as the district’s old glass greenhouse, the new facility was built from the ground up, and is connected to a former storage building that was converted into a classroom space.
The principal explained that the glass of the old greenhouse was broken and a danger to those inside, and experts that were brought in recommended that it be torn down and a new, more modern greenhouse be erected.
Sintobin said the Clarion-Limestone Scholastic Foundation stepped up to support the project, along with the Huwar Family, Julia Pando, Chris Boozer, Evan and Kelsey Makin, and the Wildflower Garden Club and Patty Girt.
Purchased from a Pennsylvania-based company, the greenhouse was assembled over the summer by the district’s maintenance staff.
When the new school year started, Sintobin said he brought in the high school’s agriculture teachers, along with elementary science teacher Wendy Ferguson, and asked them to “get things growing and working as quickly as we could.
“We started producing things right away,” he said, pointing to the various planters sprouting with new life.
Sintobin envisions the greenhouse as being more than “just putting some seeds and watching them grow.”
“Those are science experiments,” he said, pointing to students who will learn about different varieties of plants and how to best make them grow.
The greenhouse will also be used to teach students about running a business, as items grown inside are sold in the springtime.
He said the project would incorporate instruction on entrepreneurship, advertising and “all the things that go with running a small business.”
Other school programs have already lent a helping hand with the project, as students in the welding class manufactured racks for gardening tools and more, and students used 3D printers for other needed items.
C-L Foundation member Bob Sawyer said even more is planned for students, as they will help install plumbing to add a drip watering system in the greenhouse.
Sintobin added that the greenhouse will also be opened up to the community, noting that Penn State Extension, 4-H clubs and local garden clubs have been contacted to see if they would be interested in holding community classes and programs at the site.
“This is not just for C-L Schools,” he said.
