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Success Story: Issaquah Middle School
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Earth Hero at School Award
Olga Haider and Michelle Pickard, teachers, receive award from King County in April 2011.
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Issaquah Middle School
Students empty classroom recyclable materials into larger containers. |
School District: Issaquah
School Location: Issaquah
Began participating in the Green Schools Program: In 2005-06, then again in May 2009
Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in November 2009
Level Two of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2010
Level Three of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2011
Waste Reduction and Recycling
- The school started a recycling program several years ago and has enhanced it every year, maintaining a 60 percent recycling rate through on-going recycling education and awareness among the student body. As a result, garbage volume has been reduced by 66 percent and the school has realized a 42 percent savings in garbage collection costs.
- In 2006, with assistance from the City of Issaquah, the school piloted a food scrap collection program that served as a model for other schools within the district.
- Thanks to improved recycling, including the addition of food scrap recycling, the school’s garbage container size was decreased from 24 cubic yards to eight cubic yards per week.
- The average annual garbage collection cost before recycling was initiated (2000 to 2006) was $13,824. Since recycling has improved, the annual garbage cost has averaged $8,749 – a cost savings of 37 percent. The school’s weekly recycling volume increased from about seven cubic yards to 22 cubic yards, including seven cubic yards of food scraps and food soiled paper that is collected for composting.
- Students from the Associated Student Body (ASB) are responsible for collecting the school’s paper and plastic recyclable materials twice each week.
- The school’s kitchen staff replaced disposable trays with durable trays that are washed and reused after each lunch.
- Students verified that there is a recycling bin in every classroom and placed stickers that list what can and can’t be recycled on all recycling containers.
- More than 30 students volunteered to serve as lunch time recycling monitors and educate fellow students on how and what to recycle.
- ASB students produced several videos that educated the student body about recycling. These videos were shown to the entire school on the morning video announcements.
- ASB students also produced a recycling education skit that was performed at the first assembly of the school year.
- The National Junior Honor Society and ASB organized and carried out a locker clean out in which students recycled and donated their school supplies at the end of the school year.
- Staff members participated in a recycling education presentation at the beginning of the school year.
- In January 2010, the Issaquah Press wrote an article about Issaquah Middle School’s recycling outreach efforts and holiday recycling (external).
Energy Conservation
- Green team students posted signs near lights and electrical equipment reminding staff and students to turn them off when not in use.
- Students made “green tip of the week” announcements over the intercom to promote energy conservation practices such as keeping windows and doors closed when the heat is on and closing window blinds at the end of the day.
- Green team participants calculated their personal “carbon footprints.”
- Natural gas consumption decreased by 27 percent, from an annual high of 41,370 therms during the 2000-2001 school year to an eight-year annual average of 30,515 therms.
- Electricity consumption decreased by 22 percent, from an annual high of 957,240 kWh during the 2000-2001 school year to a eight-year annual average of 745,975 kWh.
Water Conservation
- All seventh grade science students participated in a workshop sponsored by the school service provider, Cascade Water Alliance. During the workshops, students accomplished the following.
- Learned where the school’s drinking water comes from and where it ends up after it goes down the drain, and the location of the school in the watershed.
- Measured the flow of faucets in the science and humanities classrooms equipped with two gallons per minute aerators.
- Measured the flow of these faucets after being refitted with high-efficiency half gallon per minute aerators.
- Pledged to conserve water at home and at school .
- Green team students and Issaquah School District plumbers installed the high-efficiency aerators, donated by Cascade Water Alliance, throughout the school.
- With support from a King County Solid Waste Division grant and donations from Cedar Grove Composting, green team advisors and students constructed, filled, and planted an organic garden that demonstrates conservation of water. The project serves to:
- Demonstrate how waste can be turned into fertilizer with the aid of on-site worm bins.
- Demonstrate how organic gardening uses compost to grow nutritive vegetables.
- Demonstrate how organic matter from the garden can be composted.
- The Cascade Water Alliance donated a water-conserving irrigation system to the school, consisting of a cistern connected to retrieve run-off from the roof of the school building and a solar-powered pump to deliver filtered water to drip tubing placed in the raised garden bed.
- Students learned about harnessing alternative energy and sustainable methods of irrigation from this demonstration project. The school hopes that it will serve as a model for future construction of sustainable school buildings.
- The green team took walking field trips to the local Issaquah Creek to conduct turbidity tests of the water near run-off entry points along the Creek.
- The green team designed and posted water conservation posters next to all the sinks on campus.
- In common areas, the green team hung water conservation posters listing facts about water consumption and use and showing students how to reduce their “water footprint,”
- Throughout the school year, green team members broadcast water conservation tips through skits and weekly school-wide announcements.
- All students and staff brought only reusable water bottles to school on Water Conservation Day, as part of Earth Week Activities organized by the Associated Student Body (ASB).
Environmental Education
- Sixth grade science classes study Lake Sammamish and look at how invasive species compare with native plants.
- Seventh grade science students learn about ocean currents and gyres, and study plastic garbage waste in the ocean. They also study catastrophic events and investigate global warming and climate change.
- Eighth grade science students participate in King County’s “Earth Impact” and “Think Twice” classroom workshops.
- Environmental experts from a variety of fields gave presentations to green team students and teachers.
- The school included a public service announcement project into the TV production/visual media class, which is an elective open to grades six through eight. Students are required to choose a topic related to environmental conservation and to educate the school community using visual media tools. The public service announcements will be shared with the school community through the morning newscast program. The goal is to continually educate and reeducate students and staff about how to be better stewards of the planet.
- A representative of the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County visited the green team along with researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology who educated students about where trash ends up.
- The green team used the campus gardens as a learning tool to understand the importance of soil conservation while planting worms and bulbs.
- To promote conservation practices, ASB and the Green Team regularly created displays in common spaces.
- Seth Adams, assistant principal, promoted conservation practices by inviting staff to make a presentation about conservation at the first staff meeting of the year.
- At school assemblies, the green team performs skits to remind fellow students to practice conservation measures.
- ASB sponsored a poster competition to encourage conservation practices.
A leader in the district
- Issaquah Middle served as a model for other schools in the district by piloting food scrap recycling collection.
- The school is the first school in its district to complete Level Two of the Green Schools Program.
Awards
- Issaquah Middle School received a King County Earth Hero at School award in April 2009 for its successful recycling program, which is due to dozens of committed staff and students that fine-tuned an existing program in 2006, enhanced it in 2007 and expanded it once again in 2008.
- Olga Haider and Michele Pickard, teachers at Issaquah Middle School, received King County Earth Hero at School awards in April 2011 for their leadership in coordinating completion of Levels One, Two and Three of the Green Schools Program.
For more information about this school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:
Michelle Pickard, teacher
pickardm@issaquah.wednet.edu
Olga Haider, teacher
haidero@issaquah.wednet.edu
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