For the past two months I have met with over 50 educators and professionals from a diverse range of specialties. These meetings were often informal, over coffee or tea, and intensely personal. My aim was to get to know each individual outside of the rigid structure often created by formal interviews but it was also to give each individual the time to ask questions and understand The Verdi EcoSchool vision. I was surprised by the immediate connection I made with some - sharing

Community engagement is an integral piece of place based education*. We set out to form our Eco-Collective** right away, aggressively recruiting community partners to host teaching gardens and farms that our students could cultivate. The response was incredible and our first farm has found a home at The Yoga Garden in the Eau Gallie Arts District. Our teaching garden/ farm will be part of a large evolving tract of land that will hopefully also be home to a community and medit

We came upon the school, quite accidentally, while exploring historic homes on a South Miami street mystically shaded by the arms of Giant Banyan trees. We made a turn and voila! - there it was. The school was everything we thought we wanted: an hour a day of gymnastics instruction, small class sizes and an educational philosophy surrounding the development of the whole child. During the tour we fell in love with the school and while we had not initially planned to remain in