BVSD’s third annual Earth Day edition of
the Superintendent’s Honor Roll took place at the April 24, 2012 board
meeting.The following groups and individuals have, according to BVSD
Sustainability Coordinator Ghita Carroll, made outstanding contributions
toward meeting BVSD’s goals as outlined in the BVSD Sustainability
Management System or "SMS."
The SMS is broken into four categories, Education (which includes curricular and extracurricular), Transportation, Material Flows and Buildings (which includes construction and operations).
Education - Thorne Nature Experience (nominated by Sam Messier)
Accepting the honor for BVSD's partner organization was Thorne’s
Programs Director Erin Saunders. Thorne Nature Experience, formerly
Thorne Ecological Institute, is celebrating 59 years of connecting youth
to nature. Last school year, Thorne staff delivered 99 Programs to
4,652 BVSD students, totaling 12,138 student hours of education through
the 4th grade field trip program to the Sombrero Marsh and Thorne’s
in-school programming.
Thorne fundraises for 85 percent of the programs offered to BVSD and
provides approximately $20,000 in summer camp scholarships to BVSD
students. Last year Thorne also worked with BVSD to help define an
environmentally literate graduate and to help incorporate sustainability
into our standards. Thorne Nature Experience staff are dedicated and
important partners of helping BVSD realize our sustainability goals as
they relate to education, thanks to all of you for your amazing work.
Transportation - Superior Elementary School, Manhattan Middle School and Horizons K-8
These three school were honored for their participation in the CASEO
program. "CASEO" stands for "Clean Air at Schools: Engines Off!" and is a
partnership between federal and local governments, schools and
nonprofits in Colorado to develop programs to reduce air toxics
exposures at schools. Vehicle idling is a significant source of air
pollution. According to the program materials, one minute of vehicle
idling produces more carbon monoxide than the smoke from three packs of
cigarettes. Limiting idling near our schools is of particular importance
because of the proximity to children.
Accepting the honor for Superior Elementary is Megan McDonnell, one of
the school's dedicated WOW Superior parent volunteers. WOW stands for
“Walk or Wheel.” Superior participated in the CASEO Program in
2009-2010.
Manhattan Middle School participated in the 2010-2011 school year.
Accepting this honor for Manhattan is Debbie Hopkins, who was the CASEO
Program volunteer.
Horizons K-8 is participating in the CASEO Program during the current
2011-2012 school year. Accepting the honor for Horizons is teacher Carol
Schwendener.
All of these schools were able to show a reduction in idling time at
their schools during pick up and we would like to congratulate them for
this achievement and their dedication to this volunteer intensive
program. Thank you all for participating in this important pilot
program, and to the CASEO program for supporting our schools.
Materials Flows - Peggy Slater, BVSD Print Shop Manager and Career and Technical Education Teacher
(Peggy was nominated by teachers and staff of Arapahoe Campus)
For the past ten years, Peggy has worked to ensure that recycling is
facilitated on Arapahoe Campus with her students and through her
position at the district print shop. She is the Coordinator for the
Arapahoe Campus Eco-Cycle program. Under her guidance, students in her
Graphic Design class provide recycling boxes for every classroom and
office in the building and have designed recycling posters to promote
the efforts campus wide. Students in her Student Council class become
environmental stewards under her leadership and inspire school-wide
participation in the programs and provide weekly collection of
materials. According to reports from Eco-Cycle, recycling at Arapahoe
Campus saves more than 50 trees a semester, which over Peggy’s tenure of
10 years, adds up to a forest. Thank you Peggy, for your leadership in
the area of waste reduction.
Buildings - Summit Charter Middle School Net Zero Club
The Summit Net Zero Club asked to be recognized as a group rather than
as individuals for their shared commitment to implementing strategies at
their school with the goal of net zero waste at Summit. Summit is the
winner of this year’s Renew Our School’s competition and reduced
in-school energy use by 22 percent during the competition and an
estimated 68 percent in homes through the promotion of home energy
action checklists. Thirteen schools participated in the competition
sponsored by the Center for Resource Conservation and supported by the
Student Accountability Advisory Committee (SAAC). As the winner, Summit
has been awarded solar panels for the school and will receive the SAAC
travelling trophy.
We are proud of all of the BVSD schools that participated in this
program, as all schools were able to lower their energy use and we are
particularly proud of the efforts made by Summit and the Net Zero Club
for their work in the Renew Our Schools Challenge, and ongoing efforts
to make Summit a green facility, both operationally and physically.
Buildings - Tom Blahak, BVSD Project Manager
Tom was honored for his work on Columbine Elementary School. Columbine
Elementary was one of two schools to receive an entirely new building,
thanks to the 2006 Bond. Early in the planning for the new school, the
design team made a commitment to sustainability by following BVSD’s
Green Building Guiding Principles and the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) rating system established by the U.S. Green
Building Council. The new building is built to a LEED gold standard and
the facility design team considered every element of the school and
site in terms of energy efficiency, resource conservation and user
comfort. In order to reduce energy consumption, the buildings is
oriented along an east/west axis to maximize southern exposure and make
the most of passive solar heating. The design also includes high
performance windows and continuous insulation. Numerous windows and
tubular skylights bring daylight into the building, reducing lighting
demand and creating a pleasant atmosphere.Water use was reduced with
low-flow fixtures and drought tolerant landscaping. Many materials used
in the building contain recycled content, are renewable or recyclable
and are non-toxic and/or low VOC and much of the construction waste was
recycled. The building also was designed to achieve superior acoustical
performance. There are many people who deserve great credit for this
successful project, but we would like to specifically thank Tom Blahak
for his leadership creating this beautiful new green school and for his
support of the Columbine community throughout the process.
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BVSD’s second annual Earth Day edition of the Superintendent’s Honor Roll took place at the April 26, 2011 board meeting.The following groups and individuals have, according to BVSD Sustainability Coordinator Ghita Carroll, made outstanding contributions toward meeting BVSD’s goals as outlined in the BVSD Sustainability Management System or "SMS."
The SMS is broken into four categories, Education (which includes curricular and extracurricular), Transportation, Material Flows and Buildings (which includes construction and operations).
Education
Dr. Samantha Messier, all members of the Student Accountability Advisory Committee, and Casey Middle School Teachers Val Wheeler, Molly Hoverstock, Ian Schwartz and Joyce Pierpont were honored.
Dr. Messier was recognized for her leadership to incorporate sustainability into district’s standards and for her role as the co-chair of the BVSD Sustainability Education Task Force.
SAAC was honored for their work to create and implement BVSD’s first green month challenge, a competition between high schools to reduce energy use. Seven schools became actively involved and five of the seven participating schools were able to reduce electricity on a per square foot basis! Thanks to SAAC for laying the groundwork for a competition which we hope will become an annual BVSD tradition.
Val Wheeler, Molly Hoverstock, Ian Schwartz and Joyce Pierpont were honored because of their work and coordination with the Casey Eco Portrait project. They voluntarily spent their time working with a group of students on an enhancement of what started as a class project to investigate the relationship between people and nature in Boulder through the lens of four elements: earth, fire, wind and water.
Transportation
BVSD “TO School Program and GObyBus-Schoolpool” Coordinator Peter Hurst was honored.
Peter was honored for what Ghita writes are, “…his tireless efforts with the GObyBus/Schoolpool program, including the very successful trip tracker program and the pilot RTD program.”
Materials
The Fairview Net Zero Club, Fairview High School Head Custodian Kyle Engel and Alliance Partnership and Outstanding Parent Beth Stade were honored.
Fairview’s Net Zero Club and Kyle Engel were selected for this recognition because of their work and dedication to significantly expanding recycling and reducing waste at Fairview High School. This group was also selected as one of ten in the nation to receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s Youth Award this year.
Beth Stade, a parent volunteer at BCSIS and High Peaks elementary schools, was honored because of what Ghita described as an, “…amazing amount of work to raise money for, and implement an outdoor classroom at the schools.”
This classroom has been a partnership among BVSD, the City of Boulder and Great Outdoors Colorado. Enhancing these partnerships is an important component of the SMS.
Buildings and Operations
BVSD Assistant Superintendent of Operations Joe Sleeper was honored.
Joe is selected for his unwavering support of BVSD’s sustainability program, without which, none of the district’s efforts in this area would have been possible.
Joe has provided his guidance, leadership and years of experience within the district to help shape this program. It began as a new effort for BVSD three years ago. Under Joe’s supervision, the district has stepped into a leadership role and now receives national recognition and accolades in the area of sustainability.
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The first annual “Earth Day recognition for the Superintendent’s Honor Roll” were honored at the April 27, 2010 board meeting. The following groups and individuals have, according to BVSD Sustainability Coordinator Ghita Carroll, made outstanding contributions toward meeting BVSD’s goals as outlined in the BVSD Sustainability Management System or SMS.
The SMS is broken into four categories, Education, Buildings, Transportation and Material Flows. Students and staff district wide have been making changes big and small to help green our operations and curriculum.
In the Education category, we honored New Vista High School’s Earth Task Force made up of: Students: Kelly Muller, Zander Deetz, Aleyna Porreca, Aaron Fox, Marissa Bramlett and Malcolm Marshall. Teachers: Paige Doughty, Kate Hartman and Andy Stephens
The Earth Task Force is a group of dedicated students and teachers who have spent the past year creating a comprehensive sustainability campaign at New Vista. The school was selected as a pilot by BVSD, and this group has gone above and beyond all expectations in their efforts. Some of their activities included: hosting “eat local” and “lights out” lunches; creating an “Alternative April” bike, bus or walk month; and raising money to install solar panels on the school (to name just few activities).
Also in the Education category, Crest View Teacher Cindy Monnet was honored for her creation of “green curricula.” Ghita writes that Cindy is, “a stand-out teacher who has brought renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other environmental concepts to life in her classroom through her enthusiasm for teaching and her collaboration with the University of Colorado’s Teach for Sustainability.”
Another Crest View Elementary teacher who was recognized was David Mohseni who served as the sponsor teacher for Eco-Cycle’s Waste-Free Lunch Contest three different years, first at BCSIS and now at Crest View Elementary, facilitating up to a 95 percent lunchtime waste reduction at those schools.
Flatirons Elementary Teacher Mike Strife was also recognized for his integration of concepts of sustainability within his lesson plans and his leadership in CU’s Teach for Sustainability program.
In the Buildings category, Jesse McCoppin of BVSD IT was recognized for his successful implementation of new IT power management software, which will power down all district computers when not in use, savings tens of thousands of dollars for BVSD in decreased energy costs.
Next in the Buildings category was Lou Novak, Bond Project Manager for the new Casey Middle School. Lou was acknowledged for his leadership in the construction of what will be BVSD’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified school, making it one of the greenest school buildings in the nation.
In the Material Flows category, Matt Stewart, BVSD Warehouse Manager, was recognized for his many greenBVSD efforts around reuse and recycling. Thanks to Matt’s time and dedication, BVSD has been able to reuse and recycle the majority of the furniture coming out of the schools for replacement. He has also helped reduce the amount of non-recyclable items in the warehouse stock.
In the Transportation category, BVSD Alternative Transportation Coordinator Landon Hilliard was honored for his tireless advocacy for biking, walking and busing. His ongoing work has resulted in thousands of BVSD students taking alternative modes of transportation to school.
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Sustainability Coordinator Ghita Carroll, PhD
In June 2008, Boulder Valley School District created a position to coordinate sustainability efforts in bond projects and throughout the district.
Some of Carroll’s goals for this new initiative are to:
- Create a district wide sustainability policy and/or update existing policies to include sustainability.
- Review BVSD curriculum standards for examples of sustainability and add those concepts where relevant.
- Prioritize green products in the bond and district-wide purchasing.
- Continually identify and implement energy and water-saving measures throughout the district.
- Reduce landfill waste and create the infrastructure for zero waste events.
- Look for opportunities to install more renewable energy technologies throughout the district.
Carroll invites any and all suggestions from district staff members on how we can become a leader in environmental sustainability. Also, when your office makes green changes, please share those positive stories with her so that she can pass on the good news. Email Ghita or call her at 720-561-5181.