School news
Volleyball Club kicks off
The Volleyball Club has started! Both middle and high school students are participating together and having a great time!
We are starting our volleyball club on Monday, September 15, 2025 in the middle school gym. It will run until October 29. With parent permission, your middle or high school student can participate in it. This is for students who are not already in a fall sport. The goal is to learn more about the game of volleyball; skills, practice, play, and have fun! No prior experience is needed. Most are fairly new to volleyball. We meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 3pm to 4:30pm and you can pick up a permission form in Annie Luke's office/or door or email for one: annie.luke@mtnviews.org.
Peep into the classroom: students hatch a hands-on STEM experience
Brenna Bridwell's class hatched and is raising chicks. They completed a math graphing project to see if there was a correlation between egg size and whether or not a chick hatched. Here's a picture of one of the students with her chick.
9th grade IES students redesign campus to prioritize pollinator habitat
Walk past the high school building this fall, and you might spot 9th graders with rakes and mulch, transforming overlooked corners of campus into something new. To begin the year, students are continuing the site preparation process for creating vibrant pollinator habitat.
This fall, students will collaborate with community partners to clear non-native vegetation, mulch, rake, and begin planting herbaceous perennials. These efforts lay the groundwork for spring seeding, when next year’s 9th graders will sow a curated mix of annuals and perennials.
This collaborative, student-led project is both an authentic service-learning and stewardship opportunity. Students surveyed and evaluated potential meadow sites, weighing ecological benefits alongside accessibility to outdoor learning and recreation spaces. The project builds on a vision started by C.R.A.F.T. Gardens & Greenhouses middle school students and now expands into the high school, strengthening habitat for both birds and pollinators.
With support from Creating Habitat for Pollinators, Woodstock Union High School is now a candidate for up to two acres of funded native wildflower meadow—joining more than 13 acres of habitat already established across Vermont and New Hampshire. Long-term, the meadows will provide an outdoor classroom for students and a model of youth-led environmental stewardship.
This work would not be possible without the support of David Hammond, Abbie Castriotta, Kevin Nunan, and Orion Binney, Karen Ganey, as well as the many teachers, staff, and students who contribute their energy to making our campus a healthier place for pollinators and people alike.
Advanced topics in Spanish students share stories of their national park
Over a dozen Advanced Topics in Spanish students took a deep dive into some behind-the-scenes stories of the Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller families that all lived on the same property in Woodstock that is now a National Park Service site.
Students met with resource experts, accessed primary documents, and conducted research into topic areas of their choosing guided by essential questions such as: "How does the estate show/balance the difference between wealth and nature?", "What is the relationship between art in the mansion and MBR and why do we have that art?", and "How does the architecture and the landscape reflect the ideals of the 19th century and the philosophy of conservation of Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller?"
Not only did these students conduct research and create a 5-minute mini-tour, but they then delivered their presentations to an audience of their peers—all native Spanish speakers visiting from Madrid. This is a monumental task that takes courage, preparation, and even a little bit of humor. Students appreciated getting to know different stories about the park and connecting with this resource in a new way.
The Spanish students are visiting as part of an exchange program with Colegio Salesianos Paseo Extremadura. The teachers accompanying the students were so impressed with the project that before the day was over, they had contacted their school to suggest that their students complete a similar project in English when we visit them in April.
CRAFT immersive semester at the King Farm
The CRAFT Immersive Semester at the King Farm is off to a brilliant start. With bright blue skies and fields of green as our “classroom walls”, we are able to really vision a future where we can learn from the land while being with the land.
Students have been engaging in some blue sky thinking while reflecting on the nature of being human. Questions like, “What brings us joy?”, “What are we good at?” and, “ What does the world need?” are being contemplated.
We have been reading aloud, journaling, sit spotting and sharing our own thoughts and ideas. Using the text, “What if We Get it Right?” by Elizabeth Ayana Johnson, we will be exploring the possibilities of a future where we build on the multitude of climate solutions we can engage with for a more just and regenerative future.
Our work is just beginning and as the semester unfolds, we will be meeting with community members, land trust staff and experts who we can learn from and work with to design this place for future educational opportunities as a model of stewardship, systems thinking, sustainability and service learning, the four pillars of CRAFT. We will be getting to know this land, ourselves and each other from a diverse range of perspectives including ones that are not human in nature.
These students have already made it very clear they are ready for this type of work and learning. I have been in awe of their thoughtfulness and wisdom in just a few class meetings. These beautiful minds are our future and they are the ones who can truly see what is possible and do the work to get there. I am grateful to have the support of so many in this truly place-based, hands-on immersive experience for our future leaders.