Area School Environmental Awareness Group - ASEAG

1. Area School Environmental Awareness Group - ASEAG October 16, 2013 Saint Paul of the Cross School, Park Ridge

2. School Updates (from schools unable to attend) • Judy McKee, Central School, Wilmette Our garden is a busy place. I teach over 90 outdoor ecology lessons to all students in K - 4th grade in the fall and spring. Lunch-recess supervised garden time is a big hit with kids coming out to explore and observe, dig in the soil, help with garden maintenance, draw, or just sit quietly with a friend as a retreat from the noisy, busy playground. I hold well attended garden clubs out there as well during lunch recess.

3. Catherine Wang and David Rongey Glencoe School District / West School We are sorry that neither of us will be able to make the meeting due to other school commitments on this day. We are continuing with our same initiatives within Glencoe. We will launch the TREX program again and we are trying to involve other organizations in our community.

4. Raquelle Brennan, New Trier Environ. Club, Winnetka The Environmental Club at New Trier High School has started, and things are off to a slow start. I hope composting will start again soon. Maybe a restoration project, too, but this may take more time than expected. • Maggie Meiners, Greeley School, Winnetka We are still working on Dream Green, outdoor classroom/garden fundraising effort, and will have more to report at the next meeting

5. Jodi Ryan, Romona School, EA Chair, Wilmette We are in the process of eliminating disposable plastic water bottles out of the cafeteria at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette. Dr. Palzet is on board with the plans, and we have just been approved for a grant from SWANCC for up to $200 to help support our efforts. • Tracey Becker, WescottSchool , Northbrook Northbrook is revamping its child's (shady courtyard) garden to be more conducive to varied uses including teacher lunch area and classroom activities.

6. M.J. Foley, Sts. Faith Hope and Charity, Winnetka We have Beyond Green serving hot lunches everyday. We are working on a bottle cap art project with Misericordia this year. We are collecting plastic bottle caps to design art work that will be displayed at FHC and Misericordia. We also planted a learning garden with a FHC alum Michael Snell. It was part of his Eagle Scout project. I am looking to see if anyone knows anything about recycling old VHS tapes. I would appreciate any info. Our library is looking to get rid of all the old VHS tapes.

7. Denise Matthews-Smith, Crow Island, Winnetka Crow Island has been enjoying the student and parent reception to Trashless Tuesday (students encouraged to bring a Trashless lunch.) and reusable party packs assigned to classrooms to reduce party waste. • Melissa Brady Lyon/Pleasant, Glenview We had a District 34 bike to school day on Oct.11 that was very successful. We will participate in the Trex Recycling program. We are taking a look at better ways to recycle & possibly compost in the lunch rooms".

8. Beth Drucker Go Green Wilmette / Wilmette Schools • We did just learn that Northbrook hired a part time outdoor learning specialist - something we would love to see happen in Wilmette.  • We invited the head of the school district to visit our largest Outdoor Classroom while children were there.  He accepted our invitation and really understood what we offer our students daily.  We encourage all schools to make sure their school board is aware of your efforts.  • We participated in Walk and Roll to School Day. • We are trying to find out more about the inflatable  globe for others to use, rent or purchase.  • We are working with our administrators to allow students to eat what we grow and to resume food composting. • Our reps at the  middle school our working towards eliminating water bottles in that cafeteria, with the principal's support/ 

9. Liz Kunkle, Hubbard Woods School, Winnetka 1.  Party Paks:  I really liked the idea of Party Paks that Peggy Salamon (Central School, Wilmette?) mentioned a couple of years ago.  The Party Paks at her school are comprehensive Paks with plates, bowls, cups, silverware that parents are responsible for bringing to parties and cleaning at home afterward.  Our school wasn't ready to ask parents for that kind of effort, so my Principal suggested I create a few Paks that would be kept in our PTO closet and be available to classes for birthday and holiday parties.  I created those Paks at the beginning of the 2012 - 2013 school year.  There were 3 - 4 classrooms (about 20%) that used them regularly last year (at the teachers' request) and I always used them in my kids' classrooms, regardless of whether the teacher requested them or not (I signed up for plateware whenever I was helping with a holiday party).  A couple of the classrooms asked if they could use them all the time, for all snacks.  Because the classrooms in our school have sinks and running water in them, this is doable.  And this gave me the idea to ask other teachers if they would like to keep Party Paks in their rooms for more general use.  This year, 6 classrooms requested them before the beginning of the school year, and then the entire third-grade team requested some after school began.  Hopefully in the next year or so, all our classrooms will have a set of reusable bowls, cups, and silverware for general use, thereby eliminating the need to use disposable plastic- and paper-ware for parties.  Basically, I hope to subsume the idea of Party Paks into simply using reusable items in the classrooms at all times. 2.  Waste Diversion:  Three years ago, after Mary Allen presented at our school and introduced her "Think Before You Throw" mantra, I encouraged students to "Think Before You Throw" at lunch.  I made sure the recycling bin and garbage can were intentionally placed next to each other at the end of the lunch line with the recycling bin first, so kids would be reminded to try to recycle things before throwing them away.  (There was a second garbage can in our lunchroom for a long time, which undermined efforts somewhat, because some kids would always go to that can.  I finally succeeded in removing the can from the lunchroom this year, so there is only one can in the lunchroom at all times now.)  Two years ago, I introduced composting with Collective Resource's pick-up program.

10. Continued… Liz Kunkle, Hubbard Woods, Winnetka  I intended the composting to last for a week, just to introduce kids to the idea, but they took to it so naturally, that we are still doing it 2 academic years later.  (Luckily, I have the money in my committee budget to pay for this.   And, this year, 4 classrooms also have compost bins, which they empty into larger bins in our lunchroom.)  Last year, we started recycling milk cartons.  This became possible after starting composting, so we could dump liquid (there is no running water in our lunchroom) and buying a larger recycling bin to allow for the extra volume of recycling created by adding in milk cartons every day.   We also have informal collections of Capri Sun juice pouches (which we deliver to West School in Glencoe, which sends them to Terracycle) and plastic bags (as part of the Trex Plastic Bag Challenge, which we won last year).  We are looking for other things to start collecting/recycling in the lunchroom this year and in future years.  Number 6 Solo cups are a possibility, but we only use them occasionally, so we may try to find something that we can collect more regularly. 3.  Expanding and Institutionalizing this Dialog:  I have wanted to take this dialog to faculty and administration within our District (36) for years.  In just his 3rd year, our Principal included "Greening of our School" as an area of focus for the 2013 - 2014 academic year.  The text of his list of priorities for the year is included below (which he presented at a PTO "Views and Visions" meeting this week).  Equally exciting is that our District Superintendent has expressed support for creating a Committee at the District level to create and implement a comprehensive sustainability plan for all our schools (3 elementary and 2 middle).  As part of making this happen, I have already created a new PTO Environmental Committee at one of our middle schools.  Such a committee never existed, but I was able to create one in less than a week (I've got 4 people and a budget of $200 thanks to the SWANCC grant!).  I am also working with existing committees at our elementary schools and reaching out to SchoolBoard members.  So, I am excited to report that the steps we've taken in just our elementary school are having ripple effects throughout our District.

11. Laura Pall, Waste Management Please see the following attachments that I was going to pass out at the meeting regarding single stream recycling, food waste/organics recycling programs and small electronic recycling programs that we offer to schools. For the CFK (electronics recycling program), it is a completely free program where schools collect cell phones, toner cartridges, etc and ship them through UPS and receive a check back to each school. All they have to do is sign up on line with their name, address and federal id number. We provide the shipping labels and mail you back a check. Keep in mind that you do not have to have Waste Management as your current waste hauler to offer these programs. I am happy to answer any questions so feel free to give out my email address to anyone at the meeting.

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