About Green Schools

The idea is simple.  Each school in our town celebrates the “Green” in their school environment, inside and out, and each in different ways.  Whether we are offering reminders to our students to conserve energy by turning off lights and computers, leading school-wide campaigns to recycle or walk-to-school, or taking part in international events like Earth Day, we benefit by coming together and sharing our questions, our experiences, and our successes.

• How do we build and use our school gardens?
• What is the easiest way to learn about rules for recycling in the school?
• Which Citizen Science activities can help us explore the nature in our schoolyard?
• Which programs or awards will help us set goals and track improvements in our facilities?
• Which local organizations can send Green Guests for outreach programs, fields trips, or teacher workshops?

CONTACT US:  ptacgreenschools @ gmail.com

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Contact Green Schools PTAC Co-Chairs to include your green school activities on this website.

THANK YOU!

More about Green Schools
The PTA Council Green Schools Committee, led by two co-chairs, is comprised of building Representatives from each of the schools (some buildings may have multiple Representatives).  The Committee’s primary objective is to promote environmental awareness in our schools, through education, activities, and operational changes.
The Committee will aim to meet monthly with ad hoc communication in between meetings as warranted by district-wide or sub-committee activities. Sub-committees are formed at the first fall meeting, depending on specific issues and topics to be addressed during the year. For example, a program sub-committee might be responsible for organizing speakers and events of interest to the Greenwich community at large.

The primary responsibilities of the Committee are:
• Promoting environmental education – Representatives should act as a conduit of information to and from the schools regarding the introduction of environmental topics into the classroom. Working with interested teachers, the committee would identify areas of the curriculum which are suited to the discussion of environmental topics and offer advice on finding or developing materials.
• Encouraging community action and service – Representatives will develop a menu of community action and service opportunities for various age levels and then work with the schools to identify those which best meet the goals and needs of the individual schools. The Committee may identify a handful of activities with the goal of all-school participation (e.g., Earth Hour, Earth Day).
• Identify opportunities for operational improvement – The Committee will develop tools with which schools can assess their operations from an environmental perspective. A reference guide of best practices will be offered to support schools which wish to make changes by offering advice on making operations more environmentally friendly while maintaining fiscal responsibility.

The primary responsibilities of the Representatives are:
• Working with other Representatives throughout the district to increase environmental awareness in the town’s schools.
• Reporting back to the PTA Executive Board information from these meetings, including meeting dates, forwarded minutes, future events/speakers and other pertinent information
• Working with interested teachers to discuss opportunities to bring environmental topics into the classroom.
• Coordinating any environmental activities that the school undertakes. Ideally the Representative would form a Green Committee at the school to better support initiatives.
• Supporting the administration in identifying and implementing changes aimed at increasing environmentally-friendly operations.