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Back to Green School

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Howard County’s newest Green Schools!  Howard County now has 42 offi­cial “green” schools, the most recent 9 being selected ear­lier this year.  What does it mean to be a green school?  In Mary­land, it means that these schools have com­pleted a 2-year process of inte­grat­ing green prac­tices and edu­ca­tion into the way they do things.  Then they put together an appli­ca­tion that was reviewed and approved by the Mary­land Asso­ci­a­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal and Out­door Edu­ca­tion (MAEOE).  This is a big accom­plish­ment and takes a lot of effort by teach­ers, stu­dents, and volunteers.

This pro­gram is great because it sets up a struc­ture and guid­ance for how to go about “green­ing” your school.  Many peo­ple have good inten­tions to reduce their impact on the envi­ron­ment, but some­times the amount of infor­ma­tion out there can be over­whelm­ing.  It also has a big impact because it changes the way the school oper­ates, and these have last­ing effects.  Even bet­ter, it brings envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness and empow­er­ment to stu­dents.  They par­tic­i­pate in research­ing the issues, mak­ing a plan and tak­ing action.

Schools have improved their recy­cling and waste reduc­tion.  They have reduced the amount of energy they use.  They have edu­cated stu­dents (and teach­ers) about water con­ser­va­tion and habi­tat preser­va­tion.  They have cre­ated school­yard habi­tats, but­ter­fly gar­dens and rain gardens.

Another impor­tant part of the Mary­land Green School pro­gram is form­ing part­ner­ships with the com­mu­nity.  This is done in two ways, bring­ing local experts like Mas­ter Gar­den­ers in to help, and tak­ing action out­side of the school grounds with projects like storm drain sten­cil­ing and build­ing oys­ter reef habi­tats that are put into the Chesa­peake Bay.

I can’t say enough what a big fan I am of this pro­gram.  It gets the con­ver­sa­tion started and pro­vides a frame­work for schools to fol­low.  Con­grat­u­la­tions again to all of the Howard County Green Schools – you deserve it!  For a com­plete list of Mary­land Green Schools listed by county, please visit http://www.maeoe.org/greenschools/listing/

Elissa Rei­neck, OES Envi­ron­men­tal Vol­un­teer Coordinator

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Comments

  1. Allison Anderson says:
    October 12, 2010 at 8:14 am

    We also thank County Exec­u­tive Ken Ulman and Super­in­ten­dent Syd­ney Cousin to attend­ing the recent Cel­e­bra­tion of the New Mary­land Green Schools in Howard County. Hand­ing out cer­tifi­cates of recog­ni­tion to those schools shows the sup­port from the County and the level involved.

    With the 14 new Mary­land Green Schools in 2010, there were also 4 schools who “re-certified” as Mary­land Green Schools, which must be com­pleted every 4 years. The com­mit­ment from those schools goes back at least 4 years, but a few have been Mary­land Green Schools for 8 years.

    Train­ing ses­sions for schools inter­ested in becom­ing Mary­land Green Schools is being offered on Novem­ber 4th at the Howard County Con­ser­vancy, Howard County’s only Mary­land Green Cen­ter! Con­tact me for more infor­ma­tion (allison.anderson@hcconservancy.org)

    Great job Mary­land Green Schools.

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