by Jeffrey Stanley
"When the greenhouse came it was too small. It was only 6'5" at its tallest point. You had to crouch down to enter, and when you're talking about myself and a class of seniors it was impossible to move around."
Janet Villas had just returned to her classroom after the dedication of the school's modest new greenhouse on the roof of 375 Pearl Street, and was explaining its genesis and execution this year. "
Facilities Manager Manny Narvaez was able to build a platform and make it a taller so you can actually walk around in there now." She drew a quick schematic on the board depicting Manny's handiwork which made the rooftop a foot higher.
Indeed the greenhouse was the culmination of a team effort that began last fall in the twelfth grade Environmental Systems and Society class. "It's an IB-designed course," she said. "It's mainly about human impact on the environment. Populations, global warming." She was looking for some kind of green roof project and brainstormed with the students about what could be done within the school's limited space. They visited the Calhoun School's rooftop garden to get ideas.
"
Director of Development Karen Edelman came up with the idea of a capital fixed project," said Ms. Villas. That's how the
Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, entered the picture, as
Barry Shapiro, grandfather of
Clara '22 is a board member. With his help the Sohn Foundation provided a grant for the purchase and permanent installation of the greenhouse.
"We did a big site survey," said Villas. At one point they considered putting the greenhouse on the portion of the roof outside the Lower School science lab on the fifth floor but it wasn't feasible. "The only way to get to it would have been crawling out the window."
In the end, some storage sheds in a cozy corner of the rooftop playground were relocated and this decidedly urban greenhouse found its home near the school's humming exhaust vents. "We can pretend its the gentle roar of the ocean," quipped
Michael Nill at the dedication ceremony earlier that morning."
Fall 2009 curricular plans for the greenhouse include an urban grass study. "And we're going to add some trees," Ms. Villas said. "We've ordered some teakwood planters and will plant a small maple and a small pear tree." The idea for the trees was spearheaded by teachers Sara and Tony Soll and will be planted to honor the memory of a preschool student, Alex Vitale, who passed away in August 2008. The leaves will also provide compostable material for student projects.
That Ms. Villas would be the primary force behind the greenhouse probably won't come as a surprise to the school community. She's known to be one always on the lookout for opportunities to connect our urban students with a little bit of nature. "The hard part is getting kids to interface with it when it's been so manipulated," she said. Projects in past years have including regular field trips to lower Manhattan to take water quality samples from the East River. "Or taking kids to Cape Cod to see what Brooklyn would look like if Brooklyn weren't here," she joked. "They forget that Brooklyn is an ocean city, which nobody believes. Our weather is dominated by an ocean. I teach them about tides and the moon and they look at me like I'm crazy."
Such projects have made Janet the school's de facto environmental steward. "I think a lot of people are interested and concerned, and it always comes down to, ask Janet."
For several years now she has been in charge of the Middle School recycling program. "I have this band of 25 Middle School kids. Every Friday they run through the building in squads emptying all the recycling bins. It's a paramilitary operation," she quipped. "They stay in for years, they move up the ranks." Villas was also instrumental in helping IB Coordinator Trefor Davies organize the Upper School's recycling program.
She also started a Middle School cork brigade which periodically launches wine cork drives. The corks are sent to a company called
Terracycle, an innovative recycling business started by two Princeton students in 2001. "We also collect yogurt cups," added Janet, "because they can't be recycled in regular trash."
Earlier this year her environmental studies class also led a phone drive. "That was incredible to watch the phones come in from parents and kids," she said. She conceded that sometimes she had to take a nod from Alexander Hamilton's concept of self-interest rightly understood. "I did the phones as a straight grade for the whole class. You bring in 75 phones you get a grade of 75. You bring in 100 phones you get a grade of 100. We collected 117 phones in 21 days." These were donated to
Collective Good, a company which recycles electronic devices and makes charitable contributions. Janet's class opted to donate their proceeds to
CARE.
In addition to a degree in environmental chemistry from Rutgers University, Ms. Villas' own professional development activities have included attending an astronomy camp for educators in the Arizona desert and a workshop studying volcanoes, flora and fauna in Hawaii. This summer she'll be taking a science cruise to study glaciers in Alaska.