NORMAL–High school students who have emotional disturbances face a 1-out-of-2 risk ofnot finishing to the 12th grade to get their diploma. Without thatdiploma, finding work and thus, contributing to society, could be difficult.

But three teachers at NormalCommunity High School who specialize in dealing with students who haveemotional and behavioral disorders believe they have hit upon a plan to helptheir students to learn a skill while, at the same time, aid the school to earna little extra income down the road.

NCHS Student Support Staff membersHilary Ruyle, Carrie Leonard, and Molly Stolfa, joined by Unit 5 Horticultureteacher Dr. Kevin Enderlin, have won the second annual $10,000 “Beyond The Box”Grant, sponsored by the Beyond The Books Educational Foundation. The grantproject is a joint venture between NCHS’ Special Education and Agriculturedepartments.

In the project, titled “HorticultureTherapy,” teachers will use the greenhouse behind the high school as theirclassroom for these students, operating it as a business. The students involvedin the project will own an equal share of the business.

Amongthe skills the students will learn as part of the project are:

• Landscape design and installation: Studentswill design and install landscape around the outside of the greenhouse.

• Managing of public relations for theproject, including activities which will draw parent, staff, and communitysupport for the project.

• Teachers involved in the project willcoordinate with Master Gardeners, local nurseries, and local companies as guestspeakers and expert resources. This aspect of the project would include fieldtrips to horticulture-related businesses in the community.

• Students will begin planting andtransplanting vegetable and flower bedding plants in the greenhouse. They willcare for the plants until May. By May, the students will offer the plants forsale to parents, staff, and the community-at-large. Any flowers not sold willbe planted by the students into a school landscape.

Studentsin this project will plant tomato and pepper plants from seeds at the start ofthe spring semester, Enderlin said.

Threestudents involved in the project are Tyler Teste, 16, a sophomore; MichaelJackson, 15, a sophomore; and Jacob Rodgers, 14, a freshman. Jackson said heknew there was a similar program for horticulture at Normal Community WestHigh, the school he transferred to NCHS from.

“Ithink the whole aspect of what the teachers put together had aspects we hadseen before, but with agriculture being the subject, everybody is trying to gogreen,” said Gail Ann Briggs, a member of the Beyond The Books Foundation Boardand a Unit 5 School Board member.

“Itwas a highly ranked project for us,” Briggs said about the Beyond The Books grantcommittee in their deliberations over which project should get the $10,000grant. “It’s for a population that needs more of their needs met.”

“Theway Dr. Enderlin had collaborated and cooperated with other agencies to securefunding from other groups” showed the committee awarding the grant promise thatthe project would be a project that would see continued use and growth into thefuture, Briggs explauined. For Briggs, that was one of the selling points ofthe project.

“Ilook at staying power,” Briggs said about one of the criteria that helped herdecide to award the grant to this project. She added this project has a lot ofsubstance and equipment needed for growing plants. She said students wouldlearn the business aspect of this activity, giving them a chance to earn incomefor the school from the products they sold.

“I’mreally pleased that the NCHS Ag department will be a working facility,” Briggssaid. “This project is just really outstanding.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 at 6:50 pm and is filed under The Normalite, Unit 5. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.