DLCS Elementary to become <em>Green School</em> through Tennessee program
Emily Lansdell |
"To get to this status, we have been working hard to evaluate our school and then implement solutions to problems with air quality, energy consumption, land and water use, chemical usage and recycling," said Ginger Reasonover, coordinator of David Lipscomb’s “Green School” application process. "Every school will find issues and not all are easy fixes. We just want to address and solve as many issues as we can." As the school continues to solve more issues, they will work toward the highest “green school” status of “performer,” hopefully later this school year,” Reasonover added.
In addition to achieving partnership status as a “Green School,” David Lipscomb’s elementary school recently won the 2007 Eastman Chemical Company Good Sports Always Recycle (GSAR) Award. The award was presented to a David Lipscomb representative at the Oct. 27 University of Tennessee football game in Knoxville. Only ten schools in the state receive this award each year. This is the third time David Lipscomb’s elementary school has received this award in the past 10 years, Reasonover said.
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DLCS officials pick up the 2007 Eastman Chemical Company Good Sports Always Recycle Award at a UT football game.
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- Students bring aluminum cans, newspapers, plastic bottles and other recyclable items to convenient bins, which are also open to the public.
- Aluminum cans are sold to raise money for Monarch Watch in Mexico providing jobs in indigent communities. Gently used school supplies are also "re-purposed" as they are donated to schools in Honduras and Mexico.
- Kindergartners plant and maintain a butterfly garden, which also serves as part of the Monarch Waystation hosted by Mrs. Becky Collins’ kindergarten class.
- Students plant, cultivate and harvest vegetables and host plants each year. They create mulch from newspapers and use food waste to produce compost in the garden.
- Third graders are experimenting with hydroponic gardening.
- All classrooms are making efforts to use less paper by incorporating laptops and smart boards, and introducing more hands-on approaches to learning.
- Events like "Paperless Learning Day" and "No Trash Lunch Day" encourage good stewardship of our earth.
In addition, the elementary school is planning construction of an outdoor classroom that will include an amphitheater, pond, garden, butterfly garden, weather station, and bird-watching equipment. The area will be self-sustaining with a water tower and native plants.
"This is a great service to the community for the future because our kids will grow up to make better decisions when they have their own buying power," Reasonover said. "They are becoming environmentally conscious."
In building on the success of earth-friendly programs at the elementary school, the David Lipscomb middle/high school campus is making recycling a priority, said Mark Pugh, high school principal. Through the Metro Government Division of Waste Management, the middle school and high school have started a recycling program that includes recycling containers on campus and a recycling dumpster that will be open to the community.
For more information about the “green school” projects at David Lipscomb Campus School, contact Ginger Reasonover at 966-1783.