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Success Story: Tahoma School District
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Tahoma School district
Dale Alekel, program manager of the Green Schools Program, gives a Certificate of Recognition to Mike Maryanski, superintendent of the Tahoma School District at a district event in May 2010. |
Number of schools in the district: 8
Began Participating in the Green Schools Program: October 2007
Green School District, Level One: Achieved in May 2010
Waste Reduction and Recycling
- The Tahoma School District is the first school district in King County to officially complete Level One of the King County Green Schools Program.
- All of the district’s eight schools were recognized by King County as Level One Green Schools.
- Glacier Park Elementary School was the first school in the district to participate in the program, leading the way for the other seven schools in the district to do the same.
- Glacier Park Elementary, Lake Wilderness Elementary, Rock Creek Elementary, Shadow Lake Elementary, Tahoma Middle School, Cedar River Middle School, Tahoma Junior High, and Tahoma Senior High have involved their students and staff in waste reduction, recycling and other conservation practices.
- Five of the district’s eight schools recycle their food scraps and food soiled paper, which Cedar Grove Composting facility collects and composts. Glacier Park Elementary, the first school in the district to add organics collection, increased its recycling rate from 10 percent to 68 percent by recycling paper, bottles, cans, cartons and organic materials.
- Due to increased recycling and decreased garbage volumes, the district reduced its garbage disposal costs by 24 percent – a total of $25,000 – when comparing September to April 2007-08 costs to September through April 2009-10 costs.
- Sustainability and environmental education are integrated into curriculum at every grade level throughout the district. Environmental education tools include field trips and use of school grounds to plant and maintain gardens.
- To reduce paper use, the district has a double-sided photocopying and printing policy, and purchased a fax machine that prints double-sided pages. A voice mail system is used to send district-wide messages to parents.
- To avoid food waste, prior to the end of the school year the district’s food service team uses up all food that would otherwise become inedible over the summer or reach expiration dates before September.
- Durable trays are used in every school, and compostable cardboard trays are used only when necessary.
- At a school board meeting and through an e-mail to all employees, the district introduced its participation in the Green Schools Program.
- In meetings with principals and head custodians, district-wide recycling procedures and Green School goals were discussed.
- As of May 2010, three schools in the district – Glacier Park Elementary, Cedar River Middle and Tahoma Junior High – completed Level Two of the program, which focuses on energy conservation practices.
- Students and staff in these schools learned why energy conservation is important, and became engaged in actions such as turning off lights in unoccupied spaces, turning off equipment after use, and keeping heating vents free of books and other items.
- All utility bills are monitored by district staff and reported to the school board each month. The district plans to complete Level Two, which is focused on energy conservation.
For more information about this district’s participation in the King County Green Schools Program, contact:
Lori Cloud, executive assistant to the Superintendent
lcloud@TahomaSD.US
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