3rd annual native plant sale was a success

Over only a few days, more than 150 people stopped in to buy plants from our native plant sale. This sale is hyper-local. Most of the seed is collected by students in the fall from large local populations.

Anything that we can’t source locally in a sustainable way, we source from the Wild Seed Project, the Northeast Seed Collective, the Native Plant Trust, and Prairie Moon – prioritizing local ecotype seed whenever possible. Local ecotype seeds are sourced from plant populations in our ecoregion (we are ecoregion 58) meaning that their genetics and functions are adapted to our local environment. Preliminary data from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies suggests non-local ecotypes have very different flowering phenology (timing) which could affect our pollinators. Students steward these plants for a year - from sowing them to cold stratify in the late fall, to dividing them in the spring, to helping them find the right home in community member’s gardens, meadows, and restoration projects the following year.

We still have some plants leftover. If you have a restoration project you are working on and need plants, let Abbie (abbie.castriotta@mtnviews.org). 

If you are interested in learning more about sustainable wild seed collection, join us at the King Farm on 10/1 from 5:30-7:00pm. You can register for the event through Sustainable Woodstock here. 

Imagine & Unwind: A quiet space to just create

Imagine & Unwind is a new Tuesday ARE/lunchtime drop-in space where students can slow down, create, and take a break from the noise and activity of the school day.

Students are welcome to come during ARE, or, if they have another club or commitment during ARE, they can bring their lunch and join during lunchtime instead. There are no assignments, critiques, or expectations. Students are simply invited to choose a creative activity and enjoy some peaceful time making art.

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There is good reason to intentionally create spaces like this for young people. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study 68% of U.S. teens feel a great deal or a fair amount of pressure to earn good grades. The CDC also reports that nearly 1 in 3 high school students experienced poor mental health, including stress, anxiety, and depression, most of the time or always. At a time when students are balancing academics, activities, relationships, technology, and expectations for their futures, even a short opportunity to slow down can be valuable.

The club grew in part from Dr. Gravel’s interest in the ways creative experiences can support well-being. Last year, she completed a graduate certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy from MECA&D and wanted to bring some of what she learned into the school setting. Imagine & Unwind provides a small space in the school week where students do not have to achieve anything, earn a grade, or even carry on a conversation. They can simply be present and create.

For the first gathering, students chose from a variety of mandalas, gathered drawing materials, grabbed a cookie, and settled in for some quiet creative time. The only real rule was no talking. The goal was to create a space where students could relax without the pressure to socialize, perform, or produce something for a grade.

Imagine & Unwind is currently offered on Tuesdays only, but Dr. Gravel hopes to expand the drop-in to additional days as scheduling and availability allow. Future gatherings will offer different simple, low-pressure creative activities. Students do not need to be enrolled in an art class or consider themselves an “artist” to participate.

For now, students looking for a little time to breathe, create, and reset are invited to drop in on Tuesdays during ARE or bring their lunch and join afterward.

From the Library: September

In this week's From the Library newsletter, read about Elizabeth Wellington Rollins's visit to our library to discuss her new book The Three Graces of Pearl Street, learn about the seventh and ninth grade English classes doing their library orientation and discover the next book club picks for the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club and the Faculty/Staff Book Club.  For more information and photos, please click here.

Please remember to return your overdue books and stop by the library to check out some fall reads.

Advanced topics in Spanish to present at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park

On Wednesday, September 30, 27 students from Advanced Topics in Spanish will present at the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park. Following a tour of the park, students selected a topic of interest and developed an essential question to guide their research. These pictures show students getting their tour and then meeting with topic experts from the National Park Service. On Wednesday, they will present the answers to their initial questions in the form of a guided tour of the mansion and grounds in Spanish.

Any parents who speak Spanish are welcome to attend. Please contact Elaine Leibly at elaine.leibly@mtnviews.org for more information.

Aquaculture expert visits AP Environmental Science

Eva Douzinas from the Rauch Foundation visited AP Environmental Science  to present about fish farming. Students are studying land use with a focus on food production methods.

We learned that there are both unsustainable and sustainable methods of doing aquaculture. When people are using open aquaculture systems in the ocean to grow carnivorous fish, there are huge amounts of pharmaceuticals, fish food and other chemicals that must be pumped into them and there are huge amounts of waste that they are releasing. Essentially, open aquaculture systems for carnivores convert natural efficient food systems into less efficient ones because you have to make so much fish meal to feed them. Thank you to Eva for visiting us! We learned so much!