Updated greenhouses will be dream come true for Derry Area agriculture teacher

After a decade leading Derry Area High School’s agriculture/horticulture program, Carly Rippole’s looking forward to summer.

The school’s two greenhouses are slated to get an update that includes new panels and technology that will allow Rippole and her students to monitor and control the greenhouse environment remotely.

“I’m excited to have my classroom revamped,” said district agriculture/horticulture instructor Carly Rippole. “Those greenhouses are my classroom. As an ag teacher, your dream is to be there when your school fixes up the greenhouse.”

Derry’s greenhouses have provided hands-on learning for its horticulture students for three decades and the school boasts one of the largest student-run school greenhouses in the state, with its main growing structure enclosing about 4,500 square feet, according to district officials.

But high winds, combined with deteriorating frames, have caused the loss of some of the polycarbonate panels that let in the sun while protecting plants from unfavorable weather. Some remaining panels have become discolored with age.

“We’ve been getting really bad windstorms,” Rippole said. “They just rip down from the ridge. If we get winds of over 50 mph, I know we’ll probably lose some panels.”

As a result, she said, “Last year it was snowing on our spring flower crop.”

“The skeleton of the greenhouse will remain, but we’ll replace the polycarbonate panels and the electrical system, which is very outdated,” said Casey Long, Derry Area assistant superintendent.

With the greenhouse’s current controls, Long said, staff must be on site to make adjustments to factors such as temperature. An updated system featuring Bluetooth wireless technology will allow for remote control from a smartphone.

The new system also will allow students to generate reports to track growing conditions as their plants mature, Rippole said.

“It will be more interactive and user-friendly than what we have,” she said.

A $163,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation will support improvement of Derry Area’s main greenhouse as well as reconstruction and slight expansion of a smaller 900-square-foot greenhouse in which students grow additional plants using hydroponics and aquaponics.

In aquaponics, Rippole explained, fish are raised, producing waste products that are a natural fertilizer for plants. In return, the plants help to purify the water for the fish.

The greenhouses give students a taste of growing and marketing plants for profit. Members of the community can purchase annual flowers and some vegetable plants from the main greenhouse during a yearly spring sale.

The smaller greenhouse produces lettuce that has been purchased by district faculty, Rippole said.

“We’re good at growing cherry tomatoes and strawberries all year round,” she said. “My students are very involved. They manage all of the upkeep. I’m excited for them to have more space to explore all that.”

Derry Area has a robust agriculture/horticulture program, enrolling about 100 of its own students along with 10 transferred from other districts.

“We’re providing career- and industry-based learning for our students,” Long said, adding that the greenhouse improvements “will put us on the cutting edge with what we’re offering our students.

“Our hope is to start construction by early summer and possibly have it completed by the end of the summer.”