Wellington Elementary recently received a grant to have a greenhouse constructed at the school. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Principal Paulie Vogrinec to discuss all the details.
The school was approached by USU Eastern and other organizations with an opportunity to receive a research grant to construct a greenhouse at the school. Three teachers were selected at the school to develop and design a curriculum geared around the concept of a greenhouse. “They’ll have so many raised garden beds and stuff. Some of the garden beds will be designated for the research project, and part of it has to do with native flowers, bees and different things, water things. With the kids, they will get to choose what they get to plant in the other beds. So its going to be interesting. We’ll have rain barrels to do the water. So I’m excited that my teachers, they’re pretty excited, they’ve been really working hard on this. So we can’t want to see it put in place for our students to use it,” explained Principal Vogrinec. This has been a year in the making so to see the items for the greenhouse being delivered over the last few weeks has made this project more real for the school.
The school is focusing on making reading a priority again this year and setting goals for their students to improve on this skill. “We have chosen reading over the last few years as our main focus and it’s really nice. You know we’ve seen great progress, its interesting as we’ve worked through this program and this process that our students are getting on grade level. We’re now at a point that, what do we do now that they are on grade level? So finding extensions for our kids, and some different projects, and different activities for those kids who have already met their reading goals. So that’s kind of a nice issue to have for our kids,” stated Principal Vogrinec. Last year the school added a writing component to their reading to help students with comprehension and have implemented that again this year. This has really helped students better understand what they have read and how to improve their writing.
Social and behavioral skills is also an important part of the school’s guidelines. “This year we implemented what was called a Positive Office Referral. So the teachers can refer a student for them to get sent to my office and I do something fun with them, I have a prize for them or I go into their classroom and celebrate them in front of their class. You know that coming to the office isn’t always a bad thing, so we’ve implemented that Positive Office Referral. So its kind of been a great thing to get to recognize and celebrate those kids who have done some over-the-top things,” said Principal Vogrinec.
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