Students at Antigo High School now enjoy a newly renovated greenhouse.
The Wirz Greenhouse was built in 1999 and needed maintenance on both the interior and exterior.
The $125,000 renovation was completed last month with the help of community donations.
Anytime there were strong winds, Antigo High School agricultural science teacher Shalynn Domke was nervous about the Wirz Greenhouse.
“I always call my greenhouse ‘Dorothy’, because I never knew if she was going to be here through wind storms,” said Domke.
Her fears weren’t without reason.
“We had a bad storm in December of 2021. And that kind of sparked the, ‘we need to do something,’ because one of my panels had flown off. And we had a piece of plywood holding the spot where the panel was supposed to be, which then did not allow me to use my greenhouse at that time,” she explained.
In 2022, Domke began assessing the building’s needs, as well as touring other greenhouses across the country.
There were so many issues with their building: the old panels, old plumbing, poor ventilation, poor water quality, and poor lighting, to name a few.
Conditions had deteriorated to the point where they could no longer produce microgreens for the school’s culinary program.
Last January, Domke took her budget request to the school board, where they approved the project but explained they didn’t have enough funds.
“So we started writing letters, communicating with bigger businesses in the community, as well as I started writing grants. And by August of 2023, we were fully funded and beyond through grants and through community donation,” said Domke.
The renovation fully modernized the Wirz Greenhouse, adding new panels, a new watering system, new ventilation system, new lighting system, new student workspaces, and more.
Students were excited for the changes.
“I've been struggling the last couple of years getting good quality products out and so a lot of the students are just super excited that we are going to have better conditions,” explained Domke.
“Students are excited about all the other technical additions that we have, because it's going to make them ready for the industry, if they decide to go into a horticulture career,” explained Domke.
In the future, they plan to connect with the food pantry and their school’s culinary program.
“We are hoping to be able to bring that back and start growing all the herbs for our culinary program. And then we also want to be able to start connecting with some of our businesses and community, specifically our food pantry,” said Domke.
Domke says that she hopes that with a wider array of better quality produce, students will be able to connect with their community more.
