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Success Story: Lakeridge Elementary School
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Lakeridge Recycling Club
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Leap for Green Fair
Lakeridge parent volunteers Carolyn Berkley Counihan and Nancy Weil at Mercer Island Leap for Green Fair, April 2010
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School District: Mercer Island
School Location: Mercer Island
Began participating in the Green Schools Program: December 2009
Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2010
Level Two of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2011
Waste Reduction and Recycling
- Lakeridge increased its recycling rate in the lunchroom from 0 to 52 percent.
- Fourth and fifth grade students from the recycling club actively help with recycling efforts throughout the school.
- A waste-free lunch initiative was started by educating the students and their families about choosing reusable containers and buying in bulk to reduce packaging waste.
- The zero waste team placed recycling stickers that list what can and can’t be recycled on classroom and lunchroom recycling containers.
- The school reduced lunchtime garbage volume by recycling plastic bottles, aluminum cans, juice boxes and milk cartons. Lakeridge also began lunchroom collection of food scraps, which are collected each week by Cedar Grove Composting.
- The composting program is run by student and parent volunteers who monitor the bins when students line up to throw out their scraps at the end of lunch.
- Thanks to these efforts, in 2009-10, Lakeridge cut its weekly lunchroom trash volume from 700 pounds per week to 85 pounds per week.
- The Lakeridge Learning Garden, which the Garden Committee began to construct in May 2010, was completed in the spring of 2011 and has areas for each grade level to plant and maintain. Curriculum for the garden will be used for all grade levels.
Other Conservation
- The school’s Healthy Ways to School Program works to lessen carbon footprints by encouraging students and their families to walk, bike, carpool or take the bus to school once each week.
Energy Conservation
- The district received a grant from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) for a license to use software to help analyze energy use. Thanks to parent volunteer and district green team member, Mark Li, the energy conservation analysis was accomplished. PSE provides monthly data reports for the gas and electrical meters. Due to the efforts of district maintenance staff, teachers and students, the district as a whole is using less energy.
- At Lakeridge, there has been a general trend to lower energy use.
- Lakeridge plans to continue monitoring energy use and looking for ways to reduce consumption.
- The Mercer Island School District enabled sensors in each classroom to automatically turn off the lights when the room is empty. The sensors detect both movement and sound.
- Through the school newspaper and via email, Lakeridge parents and staff have been notified about these and other energy conservation efforts.
- On the PTA website, the school informed parents and staff about the monetary cost of its energy use and how to reduce energy consumption both at home and at school.
- For the week surrounding Earth Day in April 2011, students read a “tip of the day” on how to conserve energy.
- The school’s vending machine display lights have been turned permanently off.
- Incandescent lights have been replaced with fluorescent bulbs/tubes throughout the school.
- These efforts and communications have inspired great conversations between students, custodians, parents, faculty and principal. The theme has definitely become, “Together We Can Save Energy!”
For more information about the school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:
Suzanne Riley and Carolyn Counihan, Lakeridge Green Team co-chairs
avalonriley@comcast.net or cberkley1@msn.com
Fred Rundle, principal
fred_rundle@misd.wednet.edu
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