Feature article

Summit promotes green, healthy schools

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
March 4, 2008

  Whether the focus is children’s health or our planet’s, green initiatives are gaining a foothold in the central Kentucky soil.
  This past weekend’s Green Tools for Green Schools regional summit brought nearly 200 folks together to explore low-tech methods for fostering green, healthy schools such as:
* Planting trees strategically to lower energy bills;
* Improving indoor air quality to reduce student absences;
* Tending school gardens to nurture children’s physical and emotional well-being.
  “All this work is about how well we inspire (the kids) to learn and be involved and how they can be the next generation of people designing schools,” said Jim Embry, one of the chief organizers.
  Saturday, students were invited to share highlights of green projects at their schools, including gardens and recycling. “We wanted to make it an event where students can see they have a role to play,” Embry said.
  The day’s interactive workshops included schoolyard composting, garden design and a tour of the Arboretum with its worm bins and rain gardens. Some participants also visited Dunbar High School’s memorial garden and the Winburn community garden project, where students were working on site.
  Russell Cave Elementary School is among the partners in the Winburn ArtGarden, next to the Community Action Center (www.sustainlex.org/winburn.html). The garden features flower beds and raised vegetable beds, with wood frames painted by local children, and artwork made from found objects since leaders emphasize re-using resources.
  Many of the neighborhood children might never have had an opportunity to garden, said Cathy Sutphen, family resource coordinator at Russell Cave, who enlisted fourth-grade teachers Julie Jones and Sadie Jackson to help get students on board.
  “We’re going to use it in the classroom and incorporate it in the curriculum so we can have hands-on things for the kids to work on after school and on weekends,” Sutphen said, citing applications in botany, ecology, sociology and math.
  Andrea Tapia with the Sustainable Communities Network, who has a background in public health, also named rising rates of obesity and diabetes in children as strong reasons to promote green schools. While “kids have lost the connection between food and the earth,” they are more likely to try healthy foods that they have grown themselves, she said.
  Students also gain respect for the environment as they realize people need to sustain the earth and its resources, Tapia added.
  At Dunbar High School, the memorial garden sits behind the cafeteria, visible through a glass wall (www.jessehigginbotham.com/garden.html). Students recycled pavers and moved stones to create a pathway; they also have tilled, mulched and set out all-native Kentucky plants as well as trees for future shade.
  “They decided to beautify that area and re-did the grounds and tables and painted them brightly. It’s just a much more cheerful place now,” said English teacher Wendy Turner, who helped facilitate the project.
  Dunbar students also are revitalizing a butterfly garden outside the lobby’s back windows.
  Science teacher Heidi Anderson said the two gardens serve as outdoor classrooms. “It’s not just about science,” she noted. “There’s a whole interconnectedness in what’s going on.”
  The two-day Green Schools summit, sponsored by Bluegrass Partnership for a Green Community, also featured several breakout sessions Friday at the host site, Crestwood Christian Church. Among them were teaching through hands-on gardening, and the health and learning benefits of going green.
  The Green Schools 101 community forum, originally set for Feb. 21, was postponed because of hazardous weather. Organizers hope to reschedule it; check back at www.sustainlex.org/greenschools.html for updates.

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