GREEN Partners in Highland Park Announce Groundbreaking Project Launch! (Update)

Groundbreaking set for farming, energy center in Highland Park

By Melanie D. Scott Free Press Staff Writer

   Highland Park Community High School students will have a chance to experience urban farming and learn about solar energy as early as next spring, thanks to a new Green Economy Leadership Center being built on the school’s campus.

   At 12:30 p.m. today, district officials, parents and students will gather at the high school on Woodward to break ground on the center, which is expected to be completed in February.

   The center will be housed in a large greenhouse and will include an urban agriculture training center, a passive solar hoop house, raised beds, a solar photovoltaic lab and an outdoor classroom that will catch rainwater.

   “The greenhouse concept was Superintendent Dr. (Arthur) Carter’s dream, but I picked it up,” said current Superintendent Edith Hightower. “Ideally this will give the students an alternative instruction environment and a hands-on experience.”

   The district and Distributed Power, a sustainable development company, are working together to create the program. The center will be built with a $100,000 grant.

   “Nothing like this has been built,” said Scott Meloeny, founder of Distributed Power. “We will have a solar lab where students will learn how to create energy from the sun. They will learn to reuse resources.”

   Meloeny also said students will maintain a perennial orchard with apples, pears, raspberries and cherries. Fruits, vegetables and herbs grown in the garden will go to support a special in-school café, where students create their own menu based on the items harvested.

   “It will give a new meaning to Made in Michigan,” Hightower said.

   Once the program is operational, Hightower said she would aim to establish similar models at the district’s two schools that serve kindergarteners through eighth-graders.

   “In prepping kids for the 21st Century, this is an opportunity to look beyond high school,” Hightower said. “This is a premier education center that will teach them they now have options that are limitless in this economy.”