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Schools

All Birmingham Schools Acknowledged as Michigan Green Schools

Wednesday morning 193 schools were honored as Michigan Green Schools.

Every school within  (BPS) managed to obtain Michigan Green School status this year and were recognized Wednesday morning at the fourth annual ceremony at Oakland Schools in Waterford.

Aside from having full representation across the district, Birmingham’s was acknowledged at the ceremony for its position as a Green School for the past five years — longer than the Oakland County program has been around. According to Debby Dunn, Michigan Green Schools of Oakland County Coordinator, Beverly worked with the state coordinator its first year before the county program had blossomed. 

For other schools within BPS, like , obtaining the Michigan Green School status is new.

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“This event was great, it was great sharing ideas,” Sheila Brice, community service organizer at Groves said. “The spirit and passion to move forward with this, this year just sparked.”

According to principal at , James Lalik, Pierce is greatly involved with recycling and it has made a difference at their school. For instance, Lalik noted that just a few years ago, lunch time could accumulate up to 16 bags of trash daily. Now the school is down to four on average.

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“The efforts by the parents, kids and staff are amazing,” Lalik said.

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Some of the eco-friendly ideas discussed at the ceremony were rain gardens, shoe drives, sports equipment swaps and having green kid awards based on how energy efficient individual students are, among others.

“As we talk this morning we hear a lot about saving energy and recycling and many of the programs that you all have thought about with your creative ideas,” Carole Schmidt, deputy superintendent for Oakland Schools said. “And you what that is, is learning — and we’re learning how to take care of our world and our environment.”

In order to receive the Green School status, schools have to perform a series of green friendly activities and then apply for the certification thoroughly detailing their projects. 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 go past 10 and achieve 15 green-related activities. Finally, there is evergreen status, which is presented to participants reaching 20 qualifying activities. Three Birmingham schools were able to receive emerald status and eight achieved evergreen.

“I just love influencing our future generations to a lifestyle,” Dunn said.

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.

“They are taking it home and making a difference there to,” Lalik said of the students’ recycling habits. “They’re practicing it from the first day they’re in kindergarten; they know that there are recycling bins.”

Birmingham schools earning recognition Wednesday are

Michigan Green School Award

Michigan Green School Emerald Status

Michigan Green School Evergreen Status

In addition, the , also located in Birmingham, received the Michigan Green School Emerald status.

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