by Angie Briceño | Jul 11, 2020
We are very grateful to all the donors and friends and Futuro Verde who have helped us raise $2,806 to date. Thanks to this, we have been able to prepare for the return to school so that the students can return to a safe campus as soon as the government gives the order.
But, we still need your help! We still need to reach our goal of $55,000 to help those families who were heavily impacted by the financial crisis left by the COVID-19 pandemic and which continues to affect the entire tourism sector of Costa Rica. By facilitating the re-entry of students we will be able to continue paying the salaries of our teachers who have been doing such a great job during these challenging times.
Don’t forget to share the link of our chuffed.org campaign with your acquaintances: https://chuffed.org/project/futuro-verde-covid-19-crisis-relief-fund
Together we are stronger!
by Lural Ramirez | Feb 27, 2020
Every year at Futuro Verde brings with it new and exciting progress in our facilities and campus development. The 2020 school year investments have brought us three new elementary school classrooms and an addition on our current administration building along with a remodel of our current administration facilities. All of these new learning and work spaces are beautiful!
Some features of our new classroom construction include:
Our light construction approach- metal framing and half walls keep the construction light and the open spaces allow for optimal air flow, natural light, and connection to the surrounding jungle!
The decision to raise the base of our buildings above the ground is consistent with our permaculture commitments and allows for uninterrupted flow of rain water beneath the buildings during the rainy season.
Classrooms are much larger than the previous spaces and this large space allows teachers and students to have ample and flexible learning spaces, with table and floor space used for different pedagogical approaches and needs.
A set of new bathrooms are adjacent to the 4th grade classroom and their strategic location places new bathrooms right in the middle of the elementary wing of our school, conveniently located for all elementary aged students.
Features within the administrative building addition and remodel:
- A large, dedicated library space for secondary and another for primary and preschool.
- A new computer lab with space for 25 desktop computers.
- A dedicated testing and conference room, fully enclosed, air conditioned and ready to support in class assessment times as well as student national FARO and international IB exams. When not used for assessment, the conference room will be used for board meetings, community organization and cooperation efforts and teacher meetings.
- A dedicated counseling space for our school psychologist to be able to attend to the social and emotional needs of our students.
- Additional bathrooms for students to access on the south end of the campus and during recess times especially.
- Multiple offices for our amazing specials teachers, leadership team, coordinators and finance department.
As you can see, our campus continues to expand and grow to meet the needs of our diverse community. We are thrilled to have our new buildings, to have access to comfortable and inviting learning and work spaces meant to inspire a love for learning, and we are forever grateful to our families for their commitment to our school and to our donors for their willingness to give toward our expansion efforts and facilities development! Thank you!
by Angie Briceño | Feb 24, 2020
Throughout the 2020 school year, you might notice some changes and improvements within our preschool department. We are starting off the school year with our two spacious, improved and cooler classrooms, where our youngest students can enjoy learning in each developmental area. The preschoolers will learn through movement-based and music activities, explore the texture area, observe, create, and develop their own ideas in the area of thinking and expand their love of reading in the areas of language and literature.
The teachers have worked hard, as they do every year, to make this year’s preschool department a learning experience each and every day. In each of these learning areas the children will develop skills that allow them to be lifelong learners: thinking skills, making connections between learning and life, exploration, observation, and more. The beauty of the process is that through learning histories, which teachers create by documenting the learning process through photos, videos, and observation, parents will be able to feel closer to their children’s learning.
We will also have teachers who are working with our youngest children at Futuro Verde to further strengthen students’ love of language and literature. We look forward to seeing you on Back to School Night so that you can explore these areas and more with your child in the preschool department!
by Lural Ramirez | Nov 3, 2019
Over the course of this year I have been sharing with you reflections on our school’s core values. My article in September explored the fourth of five core school values, “Futuro Verde: We Take the Best of our Diversity to Live in Harmony”. Today, I will be sharing reflections on our fifth and final core school value.
Futuro Verde: We Grow and Learn in Harmony with Nature
With a name like Futuro Verde, this final core school value might be the most obvious one to pop into your mind! Futuro Verde has green in its name but most importantly we are truly ‘green’ in our hearts- not perfect in our ecological footprint but certainly striving and working hard to be the model of what green, sustainable, harmonious living with nature can be like. From one year to the next our commitment strengthens and grows and here is a quick sampling of how we grow and learn in harmony with nature at Futuro Verde:
Purpose-built new classroom construction:
Our board of directors and leadership team has purposefully committed to our new construction, regular education classrooms having half walls, no doors and no traditional windows. Why, you might ask? Because we are located in the middle of the jungle and we want our students to feel connected to that beautiful jungle each and every day as they learn and grow! The design also has a practical purpose as the air flow keeps the space cool and lets moisture in and out as needed.
A full permaculture campus is in the works:
Through a long-standing collaboration with our fiscal sponsor, Green Wave, we are dedicated to the development of a campus wide alignment to permaculture practices and restoration of our green spaces. This design includes development that takes the land, flow of air and water and the needs of the community into consideration before ground is broken and building and development begins. As our Green Wave consultant is prone to say “the problem is the solution!”. This beautiful mindset shift is an inspiring guide post as we learn and grow in this area.
School-wide environmental campaigns:
Most of our community already knows about our trimester beach clean-ups which are a dependable and welcome service project our students participate in three times per year at a range of our local beaches. But, you may not have known about the on-site, open to the community recycling center we have, or the compost bins run by our students? Perhaps you’ve never heard of our program to support wild animals staying wild or our farm to table goals through our student-developed garden? Our environmental campaigns are many, are led by our environmental education teachers and our students at every grade level and are supported by each and every school teacher, staff member and community member who joins us in this strong commitment to the environment!
One of our newer aspects as a school when we consider the importance of living in harmony in nature is serving as an advocate for our beloved mother Earth! As the years have passed, as our school has grown and as our level of academic rigor has continued to improve, our students are increasingly working as activists and advocates for policy change, awareness campaigns and social and political influence regarding environmental and nature related topics. As a school we also have an ongoing commitment to, and work intentionally with, the Global Goals, especially in the sense of raising awareness among our students and encouraging their advocacy and activism related to a variety of different areas related to sustainability within the Global Goals framework, to include: education, citizenship, equality, environment and health.
We encourage our entire school and greater community to continue to support our school’s commitment to a life filled with connection to nature and a determination to seek a harmonious existence with the nature in our lives and a dedication to ongoing development, growth and learning from each of us every day as we strive to best support the health and longevity of our Earth!
by Rico Reolon | Oct 30, 2019
The Futuro Verde educational project has always been a labor of love for our board members! Having been on the board from the beginning and having overseen all of the construction, remodeling and development projects our school has taken on, I can attest to the hard work and concerted effort facilities development has been at our small, community school.
The positive news is that our facilities continue to improve each year and this has been the product of the support of school families, generous external donors and the careful planning and quick initiative of Futuro Verde leadership team and board members looking to act quickly and in favor of ongoing development, growth and improvement.
Some highlights from our governing body and from my tenure as board president include:
Overcoming Development Setbacks- From a lack of funding, to a lack of consistent governmental support, to the delay of planned projects in order to address urgent needs, our development has not been a continual line of success. But, through it all, I am proud to say that our board of directors has worked together to problem solve, address urgent issues and to work diligently toward the best facilities we can achieve at any given time.
Strategic Plan- I am proud to say that our board has followed a strategic plan for years now. This plan has focused the board’s efforts and ensured that we continue to seek development of our student population and facilities with intention and drive. A new, full day board retreat scheduled for November 9th will have us reviewing and updating our current strategic plan.
Leadership and Guidance- The board of directors takes its responsibility of leadership and governance seriously and this includes a sustained focus on the support and counsel of our fantastic school leadership team as they strive to ensure that our programs develop in a measured way that matches our ability to improve and build new and needed facilities. The positive relationship we have sustained with the school leadership team has allowed for courageous conversations and collegial interactions in which the well-being of our students and our school stay at the forefront of our decision-making.
Septic System Process- One of our most recent achievements has been a major improvement to our septic system, which will improve our waste water management school wide. We are proud to be collaborating with Ecotanks in the installation of a system that fully treats our waste water and releases into the environment waste that is 100% potable (although Futuro Verde will use this water only for watering purposes, not for drinking). As our student population grows and our facilities multiply, adequate waste water treatment has become a pressing and urgent need we are thrilled to have solved at this time.
Future projects:
As many of you know there are many projects yet to come:
- construction of our multi-use sports court
- construction of new, permanent classrooms to replace our remaining temporary buildings
- remodeling and expansion of our administrative building
- completion of our staff parking lot and remodel of our visitor lot to make arrival and dismissal safer and more efficient
by Lural Ramirez | Aug 7, 2019
We are excited to announce that we are in the final stages of remodeling for our school kitchen! Over the mid-year school break, demolition of the old kitchen floor and walls took place and now the tile has been installed and our new electrical and gas are being finished. The challenges of remodeling existing buildings have been ongoing at Futuro Verde and we are thrilled that our kitchen updates will now allow our staff to provide even healthier and more diverse dining options each day!
Kitchen upgrades have included: new kitchen appliances- including a lowboy fridge, new grill, stove and oven as well as an industrial sink and clean, stainless steal shelving and prep space.
One of the most exciting new additions to our kitchen is our service area, which has lowered the food service space to eye level for most students and has double boilers installed within the appliance in order to keep food heated at all times. The protective sanitary shield also helps keep food clean, yet visible, to those receiving their meals.
Again, we are excited for these important changes which have improved the safety of our kitchen for employees and changes which now allow us to provide a more professional and industrial setting for the preparation of nutritious and delicious meals for students and staff at Futuro Verde each and every day!
