Charter, Magnet, and Private Schools Honored as 2013 ED Green Ribbon Schools

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, along with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, congratulated the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and District Sustainability Awardees on their achievements ata ceremony in Washington, D.C., on June 3. In a press release announcing the ceremony, Secretary Duncan said, “These schools and districts exhibit best practices to reduce costs and increase achievement, health and equity, for all schools, not just aspiring green schools.”

Maureen Dowling, director of ONPE (center), congratulates (left to right) Meghan Sayer, director of gift planning at Westtown School; Anne Morse-Hambrock, board member of Racine Montessori School; and Debra Wagner and Jodi Tucker, elementary school teachers at St. Paul Lutheran School.

Maureen Dowling, director of ONPE (center), congratulates (left to right) Meghan Sayer, director of gift planning at Westtown School; Anne Morse-Hambrock, board member of Racine Montessori School; and Debra Wagner and Jodi Tucker, elementary school teachers at St. Paul Lutheran School.

Among the 64 schools honored with the Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) award, 10 are private schools, seven are public charters, and five are magnets. Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) staffs were on hand at the awards ceremony to add their congratulations. “It was inspiring to learn how a number of the private schools that earned the Department of Education’s Green Ribbon recognition have been focused on environmental issues and the health and wellness of students for many years,” said Maureen Dowling, director of the OII’s Office on Non-Public Education. “From vegetable and butterfly gardens, to student environment clubs and ‘electric cops’ who graph data on their school’s conservation efforts, these honored schools are developing environmental awareness and responsibility in their students. In short, their students are becoming good stewards of planet earth.”

A report with state-by-state summaries of the 78 schools and district honorees can be found here. The list of all selected schools and districts, as well as their nomination packages, can be found here. More information on the federal recognition award can be found here. Resources for all schools to move toward the three Pillars in which the 2013 honorees are exemplary can be found here.

The public charter, magnet, and private schools that are the ED-GRS honorees are:

Charters
California: Journey School, Aliso Viejo, and Redding School of the Arts, Redding
Connecticut: Common Ground High School, New Haven
District of Columbia: Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School and Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School
Rhode Island: The Compass School, Kingston
Wisconsin: Jefferson Elementary-Fox River Academy, Appleton

Magnets
Connecticut: Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, New Haven, and Environmental Sciences Magnet School at Mary Hooker, Hartford
Florida: Driftwood Middle School, Hollywood
Minnesota: Heritage E-STEM Middle School, St. Paul
Nebraska: King Science and Technology Magnet Center, Omaha

Private
California: Prospect Sierra School, El Cerrito
Delaware: St. Andrew’s School, Middletown
Florida: St. Paul Lutheran School, Lakeland
Massachusetts: Berkshire School, Sheffield
New Hampshire: Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter
New York: Rye Country Day School, Rye
Pennsylvania: Westtown School, West Chester
Tennessee: Lipscomb Academy Elementary School, Nashville
Washington: The Evergreen School, Shoreline
Wisconsin: Racine Montessori School, Racine