On February 24, 2022, Google provided a $25,000 check to fund the building of a greenhouse at Platteview High school. The Platteview Science Department put together a plan in order to receive a grant to help with the project.

Mr. Neilson, who initially advocated for the project, stated, “The Green House will be done depending on when we can get to the rest of our funding. We don’t have a set date. We’d like to get it in by next summer. It depends on if we can get community funding or other involvement.”

The greenhouse may even bring changes to classes such as Business, FCS, and perhaps even future agriculture courses.

“Partially it’s going to develop some ag-based curriculum, then be able to use the resources we get from it. Possibly Business classes can use the greenhouse and FCS using the product for their classes. I’d like to focus a lot on community outreach. If we could produce fruits and vegetables all year we’d like to start that process,” said high school science teacher Sarah Ortiz.

“I really hope that we can use this greenhouse to improve our local community and to help teach students about our environment,” said Ellen Wulf, another science teacher at Platteview.

The Science Department hopes greenhouse construction will begin soon, perhaps even by the 2022-2023 school year.