Back to School with 35 New Partners

August 29, 2019

NY Sun Works Greenhouse Classrooms are growing by leaps and bounds (or leaves and shoots!)!  It’s been a busy year with a total of 35 hydroponic labs having been installed so far, and another 5 ready for construction in the early fall.  We are thrilled to welcome so many new partner schools from the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. We have added new elementary, middle and high schools, including both District 75 schools and Gifted & Talented schools, to our program.  Our new teachers started with a group training in June to learn the basics about hydroponic systems and get an introduction to the NY Sun Works curriculum; they will continue with individual training sessions at their hydroponic labs when the school year begins.

Most of this year’s new Greenhouse Classrooms were funded through the city capital funding process with generous grants from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. City Council Member, and Chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, Costa Constantinides funded 7 schools, following through on his pledge to put a Greenhouse Classroom in every school in his Queens district!  Other schools, however, have taken their Greenhouse Classrooms straight to the ballot box, putting their projects up for a participatory budgeting vote. Several schools used magnet funding or their Principal’s Galaxy budgets to fund the hydroponic program.The NY Sun Works team is always ready to help new schools find funding!

We are over the moon to now have 129 partners and look forward to helping more schools grow their science and sustainability education!