New Roots Charter School will nurture young people as social entrepreneurs who will reinvent and renew our way of life, redesigning our communities for sustainability. The school’s cross-disciplinary, experience-based, “whole Earth community” curriculum will teach the complex interconnectedness of social and ecological systems, laying the foundation for visionary thinking and innovative, hands-on solutions to emerging community problems. On the school’s “extended campus” of Ithaca’s urban spaces and its surrounding farms and natural lands, students will apply academic learning to projects that meet community needs, such as restoring wetlands, doing climate-related agricultural research, bringing solar panels to low-income neighborhoods, and creating small green business enterprises.

New Roots will be a small school of approximately 225 students at full enrollment featuring small class sizes, mentoring relationships with faculty, and a Farm to School meal program.