Batlimore Office of Sustainability

Featured Article

Baltimore City Public Schools Making the City More Sustainable

More than 150 students from 16 schools spent time this winter and spring making their school communities more environmentally-friendly places to learn and play. Participants in a pilot program known as the Cleaner, Greener Sustainability Challenge, each school received $1,000 from Baltimore Community Foundation and Cleaner Greener Baltimore to design and put into action projects aligned with a citywide effort to make Baltimore a more sustainable place to learn, work and live. At a year-end celebration at the World Trade Center on May 15, 2010, teachers, students, families and other community members viewed exhibits of each school’s accomplishments and planned the next steps; students also received a framed Certificate of Recognition from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The 16 participating schools—and the projects they created and implemented—include:

The Barclay School

• Clean and restore the schoolyard habitat
• Add two environmentally-themed murals
• Host an educational forum on littering and vandalism

Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School

• Start a vermicoposting and compost barrel program to handle food waste generated from the school's food preparation
• Create a communications packet for other schools interested in starting a similar program

Curtis Bay Elementary/Middle School

• Create a designated outdoor space for reading and teaching surrounded by native trees
• Add a rock garden, butterfly bushes and student-made bird houses

Fort Worthington Elementary School

• Build and maintain a native plant green space to use as a community space and an outdoor science classroom

Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle School

• Design, plant and maintain plots in the schoolyard
• Document the process with journals, photos, video and newsletters
• Decorate stepping stones and rain barrels in the schoolyard

The Stadium School

• Start a school recycling program
• Repair and replant an old garden space

Eutaw-Mashburn Elementary School

• Implement a school-wide recycling program
• Build an earth box vegetable garden in the school courtyard
• Host a public presentation to showcase what was learned

Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School

• Expand the school's recycling program beyond paper
• Begin a campus greening program with help from Herring Run Watershed Association

Southside Academy High School

• Collect recyclables from around the school
• Start a garden in a vacant area outside of school

City Neighbors Charter School

• Create a Bento Lunchbox Scholarship to provide students with reusable and environmentally-sound food containers
• Host a workshop for students and parents on building rain barrels
• Create art projects reminding others to turn off lights
• Learn about energy usage and weatherization

Calverton Elementary/Middle School

• Host workshops for parents and staff on how to reduce waste production
• Teach elementary students how to reuse items
• Implement a school-wide recycling program

Independence School Local High School

• Create and implement a school recycling program and educational campaign for teachers, students and parents
• Create a student manual with clear guidelines about how to handle waste management in and out of school

Chinquapin Middle School

• Conduct a solid waste stream analysis for the school and use the data to determine necessary source reduction and recycling opportunities
• Conduct a school-wide energy audit and use the results to identify areas where energy can be saved

Federal Hill Preparatory Middle School

• Conduct a "garbology" project, in which students collect, sort and measure waste generated by the school
• Design a recycling and composting program
• Create presentations to educate others in their school and community 

James Mosher Elementary School

• Implement a school-wide recycling program
• Create a video demonstrating how to set up a recycling program for others to use 

George Washington Elementary School

• Place recycling bins next to all trash cans
• Participate in field trips, slide shows and other presentations to understand the relationship between waste and other environmental issues

For more information and to check out photos from the day’s activities visit the Baltimore City Public Schools website.