Schools
John F. Kennedy School Lauded for Environmentalism
The elementary school was named one of the top 10 green schools in Oakland County.
This is John F. Kennedy Elementary School’s fourth year as a Michigan Green School, but school officials were still in for a surprise at the Oakland County Green Schools ceremony when it was announced that the school made it into the top 10 green schools in the county.
Considering 193 schools this year achieved the Michigan Green School status, Kennedy is very proud of this accomplishment, said D’Anne McNeil, kindergarten teacher at the school. McNeil and Susan Christin, PTA member and chair of the green school committee, were present at the ceremony, which was held at Oakland Schools in Waterford. Together they have been working for the past few years on making Kennedy more environmentally friendly.
“They didn’t tell us ahead of time that we were in the top 10,” said an excited Christin.
“We are very excited and so proud,” McNeil said.
In an effort to be more eco-friendly, Kennedy has hosted recycling garage sales, sold reusable water bottles, collected and donated bottle caps to the Aveda Institute and recycled T-shirts, among many other materials.
Some of the ideas brought up at the ceremony were rain gardens, shoe drives, sports equipment recycle and swap and having green kid awards based on how energy efficient individual students are.
“It was nice to hear ideas from other schools,” McNeil said. “We might look into some of them when we start planning for next year.”
In addition to Kennedy, Coolidge Intermediate School and Roosevelt Primary School achieved Green School status as well.
In order to receive the Green School status, schools have to perform a series of green-friendly activities and then apply for the certification while thoroughly detailing the projects they have taken on. At the ceremony it was announced that some things have changed for next year; for example, the application process will be entirely online, and there were some modifications to the qualifying activities.
To obtain the minimum requirements to receive the certification, 10 activities following the guidelines must be met throughout the school year. There is also emerald status, in which participating schools must achieve 15 green-related activities. Evergreen status is presented to participants reaching 20 qualifying activities. Roosevelt Primary succeeded with an emerald status, and Kennedy achieved evergreen.
Of the top 10 schools that were recognized, the top three Oakland County Green Schools were announced as Keller Elementary School of Royal Oak, Royal Oak Middle School and Walled Lake Central High School, respectively.
“It’s almost like second nature for the students to recycle now,” McNeil said.
