A visit to the DeWitt Clinton High School

Please share your comments

Harvest Celebration of Abundant Progress: Streams of Sustainability and Justice Woven Together at DeWitt Clinton High School

Friends, neighbors, community members, students around the ceremonial fire at our 7th annual Harvest Celebration, November 10, 2016. (photo by Nathanial Gary)

Our 7^th Annual Harvest Celebration took place at DeWitt Clinton High School on November 10, 2016.  We celebrated our most recent harvest and numerous accomplishments over the past year with a ceremony led by Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, the Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Nation.  We gathered in fellowship around a fire, sang and participated in a snake dance.  We also stood in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are protecting water from the likelihood of contamination from oil pipelines that have been proposed to traverse sacred Native American sites in North Dakota.  Towards the end of the ceremony, Redhawk asked each of us to place an offering of a pinch of tobacco in the raised beds of our new community garden built this past summer by community volunteers and student interns as a gesture of thanks to the earth for sharing with us its bounty and protection.  The community garden was built after we received a United Way Seed Grant of $30,000 sponsored by our school’s Community Based Partner Organization, Good Shepherd.  Award-winning chef Noah Sheetz of Hudson Valley Chef's Consortium capped the evening with his gracefully prepared and amazingly delicious garden to table treats served with hot cider on what was a windy and cold but gorgeous Fall evening with the moon waxing towards its super status days later.   

Roman Redhawk Perez leading the Snake Dance at the site of our new community garden.    (photo by Nathanial Gary)

Earlier in the day, a community planning session was held in the school library to gather more ideas and creativity from our attendees about the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center and the Baldwin Trail that is being designed to facilitate universal access around our school building.  Linda Pollak, and her team from Marpillero Pollak Architects are conceiving a trail that will circumnavigate the school building at a 5% incline so as to create new spaces for community activities, create a sense of circularity around the building, and be completely accessible and ADA compliant.  Our castle on the parkway may have been built as a fortress but unfortunately large swaths of campus are not presently accessible to students or adults in wheel chairs or children in strollers.  Even our the narrow single lane ramp to the lower parking lot shared by vehicle traffic in two directions only grants access to the playing fields and school garden.  There is presently no access from there to the Goulden Avenue side of the building without climbing steep and crumbling steps by the tennis courts.  There were some new and eager community members who gathered around a planning "game" that Marpillero Pollak Architects created as a beautiful and effective means of gathering input from the community.  There was also valuable interaction with our students many of whom were being introduced to the project for the first time.  Though we are unlikely to build a Walmart on our campus, no student suggestion went unheard or was unappreciated.  I don't think any of us were ever asked to contribute ideas to the creation of a public space and in such an exciting and accommodating manner.

At the planning session, the team from Marpillero Pollak Architects lead students and community on a game that let them choose an identity, and then activities and design elements that they envision at different points along the Baldwin Trail. (photo by Henry O.)

Jessie Kerr-Vanderslice, Director of Grow to Learn, explains the game to the curious.            (photo by Nathanial Gary)

During the whole day there was a tremendous synergy that coalesced around the idea of creating the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center and Trail in memory and honor of the contributions made to social justice by this great American writer and as a means to access and create community spaces on the campus of our community school.  For instance, students from my senior English classes displayed their Lives that Matter projects consisting of profiles of vulnerable friends or victims of state violence and inspired by our study of the Black Lives Matter movement and its precedents in the writing and activism of DeWitt Clinton alumnus James Baldwin.  Students in my Sustainability class displayed maps they had created after researching the ratio of healthy food to fast food options in their neighborhoods.  Their findings clearly indicate that our students live predominantly in food desserts where the availability of healthy food and restaurants is severely limited.  If students were looking for signs of hope they might have been inspired by the accomplishments the Environmental Affairs Club that were also on display.  Hopefully some of our students in attendance were motivated to join the club whose dedication to environmental awareness and service has helped build and maintain The Clinton Garden, our award winning school garden, for the past seven years. 

Sustainability students pouring over their maps that reveal that a majority of them live in food deserts. (photo by Nathanial Gary)

We are breaking the mold at DeWitt Clinton High School and this is the mold of the failing, under-performing and impoverished large urban overcrowded high school.  We are creating in its place a new model for community schools.  This is most evident in our what is perhaps our most ambitious project of all, the establishment of a high production indoor hydroponic farm in room 332, the last remaining DeWitt Clinton classroom on the third floor of our DeWitt Clinton Campus building.  Our students predominantly come from areas in the Bronx that are food deserts.  We are about to become a school that not only educates our community and its young people in a real world way, but feeds them healthy food and educates them on how to eat well with an abundant supply. What is perhaps most radical is that we are teaching our young people how to grow their own food, indoors on a massive scale, and outdoors as well, and providing them with cutting-edge skills that boost their college readiness and employability.  We are addressing, in the most bold and spirited way I know, the still neglected role of healthy diet and healthy living on learning. 

Sustainability students in the midst of their food mapping project visited this neighborhood farmer's market that is run by Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. (photo by Nathanial Gary).

 

Perhaps after reading about all of our projects you might consider contributing to our crowdfundingcampaign that is running through the month of December.  Help us raise the money to build three farms in three schools (including DeWitt Clinton) that will grow 60,000 lbs of produce for families.  It will be an investment towards DeWitt Clinton’s abundant future. 

 

We found this shell/fossil/relic at the site of our ceremonial fire a few days later and learned that it had been gifted to us by Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, the Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Nation. (photo by Ray Pultinas)

Please share your comments

 

Our new community garden funded by United Way Seed Grant is nearing completion, shown here on the day after Bronx Green-Up sponsored work day on October 20 planting winter greens, bulbs, and natives followed by rain.

Abundant Progress

 Calling all interested staff, students, parents, neighbors, community partners of

DeWitt Clinton High School

Join us as we celebrate our 7^th Annual Harvest

Thursday, November 10, 2016

From 2:30 to 3:45 in the DWC Library

From 4:00 to 5:30 in the Garden

From 2:30 pm-3:45 pm we will be engaging partners and community on the next phase of planning for the expansion of the Clinton Garden and the creation of the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center. From 3:45 pm-5:30 pm, we will celebrate the bounty of our gardens by sharing in ceremony and food.

Environmental and Social Justice

Food Sovereignty

Food Security

Lives that Matter

Learn about the accomplishments of this past year: from building a new community garden to ‘breaking ground’ on a hydroponic lab. Help plan the next steps for the Clinton Garden Program as it grows into the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center- an expanded garden and environmental learning center, a trail-head for a new North Bronx Greenway, and a gathering place for our community.

Sunset on the footprint for the future James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center.  Ground has been broken...

...and cleared (thanks to Adam's European Construction Crew)..

...and danced upon (thanks to Amanda).

 

We would love you to attend!  Please RSVP

Progress on Many Fronts as Sustainability Projects Continue to Flourish at DeWitt Clinton High School

 

Introduction and photo captions by Ray Pultinas.

We didn't count to see whether all 1100 bulbs we planted last fall blossomed,

 Photo: Nathanial Gary

We suspect that most of them did.  (photo: Ahna Pultinas)

Introduction: It all started with the daffodils blossoming in April from light and warmth as earth reawakened after hardly a slumber and everything since then is growing, expanding, stretching - almost too fast to keep track of.  Here are major initiatives we have taken on and that are underway:

The heart of our school’s sustainability initiative continues to be The Clinton Garden.  With our recent award of an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Artworks Grant (one of only 62 grants awarded in design, nationwide) and in partnership with GrowNYC, planning is underway for the garden’s expansion and the creation of the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center.  Particularly during this time, the legacy of James Baldwin (’42) as well as his writing, his voice and spirit might inspire in our students awareness and desire to be active, global and critical American citizens.

Leading the task of design are Linda Pollak and Matt Saacke of Marpillero Pollak Architects who are presently incorporating ideas, elements and suggestions from two community-planning events held in 2015.  The Baldwin Center and its signature Welcome Table, based on a motif in Baldwin’s later writings, will serve as a gathering place for students and community to learn about urban farming, sustainability, and food justice; to witness a reading or performance; or, to discuss science and literature. It will be an outdoor classroom, urban oasis as well as a hub for connecting students and community to surrounding natural areas like Van Cortlandt Park, the Jerome Park Reservoir and the Mosholu Pelham Bike Path.  

We are already improvising on our recent designation by the chancellor as a Community School by actually building a new community garden.  With sponsorship from our Good Shepard partners, we were awarded a seed grant from the United Way of New York.  Twelve raised beds have been built and are already growing tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra, black turtle beans, cucumbers and squash to name just a few of the crops that will be donated to the community and especially the needy during this first year.  Thereafter, the garden will be cared for and tended by members of the community.  The United Way grant has enabled us to hire a supervisor and five student interns to work the garden this summer.  A fence is being installed and a harvest celebration is being planned for this fall. 

If we are destined to become a school that not only educates but literally feeds our students and the community, then our biggest achievement towards this end might be in our plans to build a hydroponics farm that will grow leafy vegetables and vine crops throughout the year.   In collaboration with Kathy Soll and her team at Teens for Food Justice and Susanna Banks, Community Health Organizer of Montefiore School Health Program along with the School Construction Authority and capital funding provided by the office of Council Member Andrew Cohen, the work is already underway to transform a 1,200 square foot former chemistry lab into a state of the art, high efficiency hydroponics lab.  With the capacity to grow over 15,000 lbs of leafy vegetables annually, we will not only be able to feed our students in the cafeteria but bring the excess to market in order to help fund the farm’s continuous operation.  Students will not only gain the technical skills and know how to build and grow hydroponically they will also become healthy food advocates and educate peers and community about the value of growing and consuming one’s own local vegetables. 

Finally, a proposal to establish an Edible Food Forest on the campus of DeWitt Clinton High School has been selected by City as Learning Laboratory (CALL) in collaboration with Mary Miss, Founder and Artistic Director, Mary Mattingly, a New York-based visual artist who has focused on environmental themes, and Ursula Chance, director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden.  The mission of CALL is to combine “the skills and perspectives of artists and designers with those of scientists and citizens to create public programs and projects that increase awareness and potential for action around key environmental issues.”  Funding is now being sought for this project that would make our school campus the first of its kind to use permaculture practices for creating edible landscapes to directly feed our students and the community.

Desmond with Kadeesha and Ursula from Bronx Green-Up who have supported the building of the new community garden by sponsoring three workdays. Photo: Ray Pultinas

Desmond and Community Volunteer Carlos using precision to assemble raised beds, April 30. 
Photo: Ray Pultinas

Yelissa, Maribel, Jozii and Clarissa (all DWC graduates and EAC members returned to help on April 30 Photo: Ray Pultinas.

Sustainability Students Austin, Amonique, Tatyana, Adamma and Edward prepare for June 4 build by hauling lumber.
Photo: Ray Pultinas

On June 4, Unity in the Community Day, volunteers included Principal Santiago Taveras moving soil and Assistant Principal Margaret Glendis assisting with the shovel. Photo: Ray Pultinas

On our third workday, June 9, volunteers from Montefiore Health Center planted in twelve recently built beds. Their volunteer day was in memory of Megan Charlop, whose inspiration helped create The Clinton Garden. Photo: Ahna Pultinas

Montefiore Volunteers planting in new butterfly garden. Photo: Ahna Pultinas

On June 9 Montefiore Volunteers worked alongside students and community members in what turned out to be the biggest turnout of volunteers ever. Photo: Ahna Pultinas

On June 15 Ursula Chanse and Bronx Green-Up volunteers joined our own student interns to begin the work of spreading wood chips in between the new beds and staking tomatoes. From left: David, Yostin, Aesha (DWC grad), Mr. P, Ahnika, Amonique, Bill, Rosa and Ursula.  Photo taken by Alanna Bergstrom, Summer Intern Supervisor.

Back in March, students from Sustainability helped to present the case for a hydroponics lab at DeWitt Clinton at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at the Value of Food exhibit. Photo: Henry O.

 

The idea for a hydroponics lab at DeWitt Clinton was first presented by DeWitt Clinton students at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan during the Value of Food Exhibit at an event organized by Kathy Soll of Teens for Food Justice. From left, Principal Taveras, Brianna, Alejandra, Amonique and Amanda Photo: Henry O.

Look for the release this September of a new promotional video about sustainability initiatives at DeWitt Clinton High School being directed and produced by Pamela Peeters (center), here with sustainability students at the Annual Sustainability and Research Expo held in the library this past June, 2016.

Birds eye view of the area of expansion and location of the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center.  Image courtesy of Marpillero Pollak Architects.

Plan diagram for the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center, courtesy of Marpillero Pollak Architects.

Sustainability Student Speak

By Adamma Ogbennaya, a student of Sustainability at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Materials Recovery Center

Have you been to the lunchroom recently? I’m sure you noticed the new Materials Recovery Center.  This finely crafted sorting area was conceived of by Mr. Pultinas, sketched out and planned by Principal Taveras and built with precision and skill by Sargent Govia.  The Materials Recovery Center is the place where we can bring our trays, plastic cups, milk cartons plastic forks, aluminum cans and glass bottles so that it can be separated out and recycled properly.  Although we are not yet separating out food waste as part of the city’s Organics Collection Program it is likely that we will be in the next year or two and we will be ready.  Sargent Govia even equipped the Recovery Center with a liquid bin for when you don’t finish your milk, water or any other liquid.  When you pour, listen for the pump that is activated to bring your liquid spill to the drain.

It's really not that hard! Mr. Milton Roman, Amanda Tillie and Amonique Perry struggle with joy in helping get the job done.  Photo: Nathaniel Gary.

Won’t you help us recycle? Help the environment. Save birds and sea animals from dying because of consumption of plastic.  All you have to do is take responsibility for cleaning up after yourselves and bringing your leftovers and plastics to the Center.  If you really want to help, you could also volunteer to collect recyclables from the tables using our convenient bussing trays.  And don’t think you get nothing for your hard work. You could win……..A 

BRAND

NEW

CAR! 

Okay, I lied, but you can earn a free bag of Simply 7 all natural and healthy snacks and some Clinton Bucks to spend at the G.O store.  You can earn Clinton Bucks by doing many things, such as recycling, coming to school before a certain time, participating in clubs and activities and lots more.  Trust me, you will be thankful when you are thirsty that day and you forget your wallet at home.  But finally, don’t recycle only so you get something in return.  Recycle not only at school and at home but everywhere.  It’s no joke and every bit of recycling adds up.  We should know.  We set a goal to collect 1 ton of metal glass and plastic by the end of this school year and collected over 1,600 lbs.  Though we didn’t reach our goal we did set a new standard for recycling at Clinton (to be bettered every year!)

Amanda Tillie working on our recycling goals chart.  Hard plastic water and juice bottles, milk and juice cartons, sporks, forks and spoons all are valuable materials for our recycling efforts.  A little bit of everyone caring and making sure their plastic makes it to recycling before we choke on it!  Photo: Ray Pultinas

James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center

James Baldwin is known as “one of the fiercest critics of the American race problem who has ever put pen to paper.” His works fictionalize fundamental personal questions and social and psychological pressures. He lived his life as a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet AND social critic, and guess what? He also attended DeWitt Clinton and graduated with the class of 1942.  To honor James Baldwin, we have begun plans to construct the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center.  The Baldwin Center (for short) will be a community learning space that invites not only students and faculty from our school and building but also people throughout the community.  The new site will also be an outdoor classroom to be used for everything from studying the garden and running experiments to preforming music and drama. This site will also include “The Welcome Table,” a table that will sit approximately 35 -40 students or guests.  The Welcome Table honors Baldwin’s last play and signifies a place to gather, greet friends around a table and share stories and food. 

Spring means filling trays with soil and seeds to begin the garden indoors. Photo: Nathaniel Gary.

 Hydroponics Farm

Did you think that plants could only grow in soil? Well the good news is that you can use a fairly easy medium to grow plants in: water.  Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using nutrient solutions in water without soil. We are planning the development of an indoor hydroponics farm in a presently unused chemistry lab in the school. This will potentially grow enough food to serve many people year-round. Teens for Food Justice will be programming to engage students in helping to constructing the farm. Montefiore’s Real Estate Facility Development Department has committed to assessing the classroom space for the hydroponics farm. We hope to convert the former lab to 1,200 square foot space to able produce a minimum of 100 pounds of fresh produce per month. With the way things are going it will be a successful hydroponics farm.

Planting seeds is focused work:  counting, feeling each seed with your fingers and distributing each seed so it has its own space to grow.  Photo: Nathaniel Gary.

New Seedlings

What do you do when you don’t have a garden outside to plant new food? You plant seedlings inside. Any type of container that will hold the growing medium. You just need to be able to sterilize them. We have started growing many types of food in the classroom. We have started growing Summer Crisp lettuce, romaine lettuce, Red Russian kale, Antirrhinum Malus, Simpson lettuce Oak leaf lettuce, Hybrid snapdragon, hot peppers, DWC Bell Peppers heirloom tomatoes and plenty more. That’s quite a lot and we only plants a week ago. And they are already growing. With the help pf gentle warmth and artificial lighting for a certain amount of hours. With the help of students they able to grow healthy with the right amount of water, light warmth and love.

Green life, like these kale seedlings, is joyous to behold. Photo: Nathaniel Gary

Doesn't Room 332 look like it's being made ready for growing thousands of pounds of fresh, local, healthy vegetables? Photo: Ray Pultinas

Please share your comments