Rainbow among fastest growing boards in Ontario with EcoSchools certifications

Rainbow District School Board is one of the fastest growing school boards in Ontario to receive EcoSchools certifications in the 2017-2018 school year. Since 2013, the number of EcoSchools certifications among Rainbow Schools has increased 300 per cent.

This year, 20 schools received EcoSchools certifications – A.B. Ellis Public School, Adamsdale Public School, Alexander Public School, C.R. Judd Public School, Central Manitoulin Public School, Chelmsford Public School, Copper Cliff Public School, Espanola High School, Levack Public School, Little Current Public School, MacLeod Public School, Manitoulin Secondary School, Markstay Public School, Monetville Public School, R.L. Beattie Public School, R.H. Murray Public School, S. Geiger Public School, Sudbury Secondary School, Valley View Public School and Walden Public School.

The certification recognizes achievement in six key areas: Teamwork and Leadership, Energy Conservation, Waste Minimization, School Ground Greening, Ecological Literacy and Environmental Stewardship.

“We are extremely proud of our schools and the work being done to make green a vibrant part of our Rainbow,” said Director of Education Norm Blaseg. “Certification to this standard speaks volumes about the great initiatives undertaken by students and staff to support sustainability throughout the Board.”

He added: “The Ontario EcoSchools program provides students with the knowledge, skills, perspectives and practices they need to become environmentally responsible citizens.”

Rainbow District School Board EcoSchools

This is the first year for certification for A.B. Ellis Public School. The staff and students take part in a variety of activities to promote sustainable practices including Lights Out Lunches (LOL), Litterless Lunch Wednesdays, Textile Tuesday clothing swaps, and the Walmart Plastic Grab Bag Challenge. The school’s Eco Team successfully sold freezies to raise funds to purchase two apple trees for the schoolyard. Posters were placed in classrooms to promote an awareness of waste management, including the proper use of blue boxes. Students also deliver reminder presentations and announcements. Staff and students enjoy sharing their love for the planet with the community.

The Adamsdale Public School’s Me to We/Eco Club presented a number of eco related initiatives this year, including community clean-ups, the distribution of Use-It-Again bins for paper, Lights Out and Paper-Free Days, and a jam-packed Earth Week. Grade 2 students also won a Laurentian University outdoor education field trip as part of the City of Greater Sudbury’s Active Kids Contest, which encouraged the use of active transportation for field trips.

Staff and students at Alexander Public School are being recognized as an EcoSchool for the first time. Teacher Stephanie Bassis-Lazure spearheads environmental projects with the assistance of Stephanie Horton. The school’s Eco Club ‘Club Arc-en-Ciel’ plan to enhance the schoolyard with white spruce and red pine trees. They also hope to add milkweed to encourage pollination. Recycling efforts have become a priority for the entire school community. Good On One Side (GOOS) bins have been placed in all classrooms, and teachers have implemented lesson plans to support sustainable practices. Students enjoy participating in eco activities including energy audits, Sweater Day and Lights Out. The school’s friendship garden has become a perfect display of nature’s beauty.

The C.R. Judd Public School Green Team promoted school-wide campaigns with a focus on environmental issues, including Litterless Lunch Day, where everyone was encouraged to bring reusable containers to store and transport food. The Green Team, along with the entire student body, participated in many of the board-wide monthly environmental challenges such as Sweater Days, Energy Audits, International Compost Awareness Week and World Water Day. Staff, students, administration, and custodians have all been supportive in these challenges. Some classroom teachers have even made the environment a regular part of their teaching and learning.

This year, Central Manitoulin Public School earned gold in their EcoSchools certification. Students enjoy planting the school vegetable gardens. Herbs and peppers are grown in a classroom throughout the winter. A salmon hatchery was maintained by the Grade 5 class. Fish developed from eggs to fingerlings were released into a stream in M’Chigeeng this past spring. A Grade 5 classroom is home to a vermicomposter, which converts organic waste to soil for plants around the school. Some 100 litterless lunch containers were provided to students through funds from environmental organizations such as Learning for a Sustainable Future. Students have enthusiastically led many of these initiatives, including organizing composting, fish farming, recycling and gardening.

Chelmsford Public School achieved a silver EcoSchools certification in its first year of participation. The Eco Club planned various initiatives such as Go Paperless Day. A Christmas Treasure Swap provided the opportunity for the community to recycle gently used toys and household items to repurpose for giving. World Water Week promoted the importance of conservation. Each student received their own branded refillable water bottle, and were challenged to drink only water for one day. Staff and students participated in the “Big Gulp” challenge. Students also took part in a GOOS Bin challenge to see who could construct the most creative GOOS (Good On One Side) Bin for their classroom.

The Copper Cliff Public School Eco Club has been actively involved in promoting and participating in monthly environmental challenges. Members work to encourage environmentally friendly practices such as reusable water bottles, lights off during lunch, and using GOOS (Good On One Side) paper. Students and staff are participants in the Active Transportation Field Trip Challenge. Staff try to encourage active transportation as often as possible, including walking to many activities such as visiting residents at The Walford on the Park, to the community pool for swimming lessons, and the local library.

This year, the focus at Espanola High School has been to update and regreen a common underutilized area in the school. The space is called the CALMmon courtyard, and is actively being used by students, staff and community members. The outdoor sanctuary includes four pergolas, three picnic benches, perennials/annuals, vegetables and a medicine wheel garden. Among the trees and plants are the soothing sounds of wind chimes and the bustle of bees who explore the bee hotels created by the woodworking and art classes. The relaxing space is also a green classroom. Staff and students were involved in developing the project and remain active in maintaining the space.

The Levack Public School Green Team has made energy conservation a priority by placing “lights off” reminders on light switch plates around the school. Under the leadership of teacher Sheila Lumley, the Green Team spearheads monthly initiatives including garbageless lunch day and waste reduction with reusable water bottles and containers for lunches for two weeks. Students make regular announcements and have weekly recycling collections. Students took part in many board-wide challenges such as Paper Free Day and Sweater Day. During the holidays, students brought in new or gently used winter clothing items for donation. The Green Team conducted surveys during nutrition breaks and “Good Job” awards were given to classes for participation in weekly conservation goals. Posters are displayed throughout the school for conservation awareness. Primary students visited the water treatment plant. Students also engaged in a variety of environmental-themed activities at Science North and Dynamic Earth.

The Little Current Public School GoGreen Club is a group of 23 staff and students who meet weekly to work on environmental initiatives. Some include recycling activities, adding GOOS (Good On One Side) paper bins to classrooms, morning announcements, and challenges such as Sweater Day, Earth Hour, Litterless Lunches and energy conservation. Club members created bird feeders for the schoolyard. They also spearhead a gardening program, with some food donated to the Grow-a-Row program. Students take part in annual Earth Day events, eco workshops and community clean-ups. Club members participated in the 4Elements World Water Day workshop in Kagawong. Grade 4 students were involved in a pedometer challenge inspired by Autumn Peltier and her work to protect water.

The MacLeod Public School Eco Club has worked diligently to implement environmental initiatives such as weekly Boomerang lunches, where students are encouraged to take home waste from their lunches. Students also collect “Lunchables” to be sent away for recycling. In partnership with Staples, students collect old pens, markers and pencils for specialized recycling. In collaboration with Lockerby Composite School, students are working to regreen schoolyard flowerbeds at both schools. In the fall, staff and students will pilot a composting program with junior classes.

Delicious garden vegetables grown in the courtyard at Manitoulin Secondary School is among the initiatives that led staff and students to certified gold status with EcoSchools. More seating, shade and native species are being added to the school grounds. The school’s composting program is improving and expanding every day. Students are recycling batteries and hosted an e-waste collection in the spring. New GOOS (Good On One Side) bins have been added to all classrooms and work areas. Students take part in an annual Earth Day cleanup as well as a day of tree planting. The entire school community also enjoys taking part in board-wide environmental challenges each month.

Markstay Public School had an impressive first year as a certified EcoSchool. The Go Green Team has provided many opportunities for students to become environmental leaders. The school has implemented a composting program led by the students with materials collected by a community member. All classes recycle. Markstay has participated actively in all board-wide challenges. Office staff send electronic communications to parents/guardians. Large whiteboards were placed in hallways for information sharing. Classrooms also have small whiteboards and GOOS (Good On One Side) bins. School-wide initiatives include energy and waste audits and lights off. Students are strongly encouraged to use refillable water bottles. Students participated in the Elephant Sale at Christmas to reduce, reuse and recycle gently-used items for other families.

Monetville Public School students engage in weekly environmental activities, including Monday litterless lunches and board-wide eco challenges. Bird feeders in the schoolyard attract winter birds. Colourful artwork with environmental messaging was added to the hallway doors as sustainability reminders. Staff and students planted trees for the Ontario 150 campaign. Potatoes were harvested from the school’s garden for the fall feast, and more potatoes, onions and carrots were added to the garden. A partnership was developed with French River Community Gardens. All students planted a flower or vegetable to bring home for transplantation. Local naturalist Randy Moratz spoke to students about birds and butterflies native to the area. Students participate in composting and vermicomposting regularly. The school hosted a House Family afternoon for Earth Day. The school partnered with the Municipality of French River to test their new recycling application.

R.H. Murray Public School has been a certified Ontario EcoSchool for five years. The entire school community has adopted sustainable practices and participates regularly in board-wide eco challenges such as Lights Out Days, Sweater Days, Plastic Free Days, World Water Week and Litterless/Boomerang Lunches. The Eco Team, led by teacher Lorna Oshell with student and staff volunteers, works together to set and attain green goals. The group meets frequently to discuss eco needs and to brainstorm and implement solutions. In recent years, the schoolyard was enhanced with butterfly and vegetable gardens as well as a boreal forest. This year, the Eco Team received composting and recycling training from the City of Greater Sudbury. In recognition of its efforts, R.H. Murray Public School received Rainbow District School Board’s 2018 Go Green Globe Award.

This year, students at R.L. Beattie Public School collected over 1,000 kg of batteries for the Ontario Schools Battery Recycling Challenge. The entire school community participated in the Upcycling: Clothing Drive with the Kidney Foundation. All proceeds collected were donated to the NeoKids Foundation. Students are actively engaged in schoolyard regreening projects, including the creation of a friendship garden with tree stump seating. Students in Grades 5 and 6 learned more about the City of Greater Sudbury’s regreening program. As part of the program, students planted 100 trees on June 19, 2018.

Students and staff at S. Geiger Public School take part in a variety of environmental activities throughout the year, including litterless lunches, lights off during nutrition breaks and power off for Earth Day. Students enjoyed wearing blue clothing to support World Water Day in March. Staff turned down the heat and the entire school wore a sweater to promote awareness about renewable energy and consumption. Students and staff limit the use of plastic straws and use GOOS (Good On One Side) bins regularly. Composters and recycling bins are located in all classes. Students created posters about the importance of composting for display throughout the school.

At Sudbury Secondary School, GOOS (Good On One Side) bins have been added to classrooms for students to use both sides of paper before recycling. Teachers are encouraged to use the school’s new outdoor classroom that was completed last year with funding from the Ugliest Schoolyard Contest. Students have begun building bee hotels to place in the schoolyard and are hoping to plant milkweed next year. Composting and recycling promotional posters are displayed in all classes. Blue boxes are emptied weekly and classroom, hallway, and washroom compost bins are emptied daily. Through morning announcements and social media, the school actively encourages students to go plastic-free and promote waste reduction, litterless lunches, turn down the heat and Earth Day activities. The school hopes to build an indoor greenhouse next year to provide food for the breakfast club and snack bin program.

Valley View Public School students are actively involved in green initiatives such as Litterless Lunches, Turn Down the Heat Days and Waste Reduction Week. Students and staff collected an impressive 1,025 kilograms of clothing for the Kidney Foundation of Canada. This amounts to the preservation of 49,720 bathtubs of water, and prevented the emission of more than 7,176 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the environment. The entire school community took part in “Soles for Souls,” a campaign aimed to provide gently used shoes for those in need. The school’s green club, the Eco Eagles, collects recycling on a weekly basis from all classrooms and work areas. Classes with the best record for waste reduction receive a trophy. Trophies are displayed in the school’s main lobby.

Walden Public School has fully implemented a new student-led composting and recycling program. In 2017, a unique outdoor classroom was unveiled, Hubert’s Habitat, named after now-retired teacher Wes Hubert. The classroom is used as a regular outdoor learning space by school clubs for students of all ages. Students can now participate in the school’s Birding Club. The sale of reusable water bottles promotes the importance of limiting single-use plastics. Students participated in tree planting with a representative from Greater Sudbury’s Regreening Program. The Rubbish Rangers, made up of student volunteers, educate Kindergarten students about how to properly dispose of waste.

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Media Contact:

Nicole Charette, Senior Advisor,
Corporate Communications and Strategic Planning,
Rainbow District School Board, 705-674-3171, ext. 7217.