School greenhouse plan approved

Whitefish High School has received the go-ahead to construct a new greenhouse and outdoor learning center on its campus.

Whitefish City Council Aug. 1 unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the project planned for northwest of the high school building.

School Board Chairman Shawn Watts said the school board is very supportive of the new Center of Applied Sustainability, an outdoor learning center featuring a greenhouse and learning center, an outdoor class space, an experimental forest zone, a wetland and native plant area and vegetable garden.

“We are excited for the curriculum opportunities this presents for the students,” he said.

Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt told council that while the original plan involved just high school students, the program has been expanded to include all students in the district.

“We look at this as an experiential educational center for our students to learn about and apply aspects of energy, agriculture, natural resources and entrepreneurship,” Davis Schmidt said.

She said the district has created a phasing plan to fund a full-time maintenance position and part-time education coordinator to manage the center.

The outdoor learning center is set to be located on 11 acres at the corner of Pine Avenue and East Fourth Street. Design and construction costs for the state-of-the-art facility is estimated at $1.2 million to be paid for through private donations.

The project calls for the greenhouse and classroom building to be located near the center of the property with the adjacent production farm and orchard running along Pine Avenue. An experimental forest, with a trail running through the center, will wrap the northeast corner of the property nearest to the high school’s parking lot. A native grass wet meadow and outdoor classroom are planned for along the southern edge of the area.

Designed to be a net-zero facility, the greenhouse will be heated with a form of annualized geosolar energy and the classroom by geothermal energy, and solar energy will be used to meet electrical demands.

Montana Creative is designing the center.

A conditional use permit is required because more than one principal use is proposed on the property and the school is already a conditional use in the WR-1 zoning district.