Sustain DCSD
May 2017
You Rock!
Sedalia Elementary - 2017 ED Green Ribbon School!
Congratulations Sedalia!
Sedalia Elementary School is a 2017 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School! This is the highest sustainability honor provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Across the country, only 45 schools, nine districts, and nine postsecondary institutions are being honored for their innovative efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective sustainability education.
Sedalia is a rural Title I school in a facility built in 1958 serving a student population with a 53% free and reduced lunch rate. From kindergarten through sixth grade, students follow an effective recycling program, divert food waste from the cafeteria to chicken coops, and practice composting and vermicomposting, leading to a 70 percent diversion rate. Sedalia’s reuse centers throughout the school put hard-to-recycle items to innovative use.
The foundation of Sedalia’s culture of sustainability lies in a Sustainability Special class, which provides environmental education to each student in every grade. Through this class, students engage in project-based learning addressing waste and consumption, energy conservation, sustainable food, and health and wellness.
The student-led garden team cultivates vegetables, herbs, and even fruit trees using water-conserving hugelkultur (raised-bed) gardening. Students have the opportunity to sell their own produce and collaborate with local farmers during their weekly produce stand. A pollinator garden, chicken coop, and multiple outdoor learning spaces provide plenty of opportunities for students to get outdoors! Despite the challenges of reducing energy in an aging building with large expansions and few upgrades, Sedalia has managed to cut energy use by six percent, largely through student-initiated efforts.
Sedalia's team has worked hard to build a culture of sustainability. Congratulations to the Sedalia community for this incredible honor!
DCSD wins Innovative EE Award
DCSD won the Innovative Environmental Education Award from the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education for its Sustainability Incentive Program.
Since 2009, the Sustainability Incentive Program has sparked the creation of hundreds of environmental education initiatives ranging from energy conservation, waste reduction, to alternative transportation and idle reduction. With a flexible school-based approach, this program provides financial incentives to implement EE by giving a proportion of energy savings back. By focusing on outcomes in energy (and in prior years waste and transportation), schools are given the freedom to develop innovative programs and solutions to achieve those outcomes.
79% of the District's schools participated this year. The impact is powerful: students engage in real-world problem solving to address sustainability issues in the school community, teachers are provided with a framework to address 21st Century Skills and World Class Outcomes, all while conserving natural and financial resources!
As a result of this program, schools have funded gardens and schoolyard habitats, provided energy upgrades, purchased recycle bins and scales, built compost bins, created “no idle zones” in school parking lots, and even put the funds to work in chicken coops.
Meet The Very First Earthies!
Earthie Pioneers
Jenny Dallman - Castle View High School
Denine Kysar - Strategic Sourcing & Contract Management
Tara Lee Montague - Copper Mesa Elementary
Robyn Riches - Fox Creek Elementary
Sue Antonsen - Heritage Elementary
Lori Schwendeman - Mountain Vista High School
Tom Neal - Mountain Vista High School
Chantel Estes - Roxborough Primary & Intermediate
Stephanie Mills - Thunder Ridge High School
Leslie Burns - Pine Grove Elementary
Debi Ruiz - Ponderosa High School
LeeAnn Westfall - Operations & Maintenance
Randy Barber - Communications
Earthie Innovators
Debi Knapp - Sedalia Elementary
Beth Church - Sedalia Elementary
Heather Berry - Highlands Ranch High School
Kay Tucker - Lone Tree Elementary
Sharon Majetich - Rocky Heights Middle School
Sara Christensen - Wildcat Mountain Elementary
Earthie Administrators
Gina Smith - Acres Green Elementary
Brian Rodda - Fox Creek Elementary
Matthew Barton - Castle Rock Middle School
Derek Fleshman - DC Oakes
Jennifer Oldham - Larkspur Elementary
George Boser - Sedalia Elementary
Alisa Pauley - Heritage Elementary
Mindy Persichina - Lone Tree Elementary
Michele Radke - Timber Trail Elementary
Julie C. Crawfod - Trailblazer Elementary School
Kelli Bainbridge - Pioneer Elementary
Earthie Parents
Kimberly Bartels - Cougar Run Elementary
Danielle Petersen - Cougar Run Elementary
Jenny Henry - Eldorado Elementary
Shannon Diederich - Heritage Elementary
Earthies
Steve Shultz - Douglas County High School
Brooke Homrighausen - Larkspur Elementary
Raymond Hurt - Soaring Hawk Elementary
Brian Wood - DC Oakes
Laurie LaComb - Health & Wellness
Amy Faricy - Nutrition Services
Glenn Kirby - Operations & Maintenance
Robert Liesener - Operations & Maintenance
Bruce Weller - Operations & Maintenance
Vanessa Hoffman - Professional Development
Jackie Feely - Professional Development
Lindsay Bergemann - Strategic Sourcing
Shannon Viera - Transportation
Jesse Downey - Capital Planning & Construction
Kim Eikenberg - Fox Creek Elementary
Chris Williams - Northridge Elementary
Daren Brown - Rocky Heights Middle School
Teresa Henley - Trailblazer Elementary School
RXPI Energy Auditing Project/Shannon Steward & Mr. Dawson's Class - Roxborough Intermediate
SSN program at TRHS - Kelly Wood, Joanna Hutson, Amy Lunstra, and Tricia Maybaum - ThunderRidge High School
Jenn Ford - Cherry Valley Elementary
Jan Francis - Cherry Valley Elementary
Natalie Reeser - Franktown Elementary
Carol Sotebeer - Frontier Valley Elementary
Margaret Condron - Pine Lane Elementary
Courtney Kuntz - Operations & Maintenance
Project Learning Tree and the Colorado State Forest Service; Douglas County High School, Steve Shultz and his students, Don MacHendrie and your team; Sagewood Middle School, Autumn Rosengren and the PeaceJam Jr. students, Michael Plaster, Martha Crawford; ThunderRidge High School, Stephanie Mills and the PeaceJam students, Greg Skarda and your crew; the Sustainability Steering Committee: Heather Berry, Steve Shultz, Chantel Estes, Debi Knapp, and Beth Church; Chris Silberman, Nate Jones, Chris Cheline, Randy Barber, Jan Reagan, and the whole Communications crew; LeeAnn Westfall, DeEtte Pace, Max Krueger, Greg Evans, Vanessa Hoffman, Alexis Jacobs, Alisha Sandoval, Lisa Rychlik, Katie Walley, all the vendors, all the Green PBL presenters, all the attendees. Thank you for showing how awesome the sustainability community is at DCSD!
Sustainability at Douglas County School District
Email: sustainability@dcsdk12.org
Website: www.dcsdk12.org/sustainability
Location: 2806 U.S. Hwy 85, Castle Rock, CO, United States
Phone: 720-663-1206
Facebook: facebook.com/sustainDCSDK12
Twitter: @sustainDCSD
LeeAnn Westfall
- Manage utility budget
- Manage energy performance contracting
- Manage fuel reduction (yellow & white fleet)
- Developing a district-wide sustainability management plan
- Oversee utility contracts
- Being generally awesome!
Courtney Kuntz
Courtney is back from baby paradise. As promised, she is sleep-deprived and cranky, but excited to be back in the fold! Call her for help with:
- School-level sustainability programming
- Energy conservation
- Recycling and composting
- Gardens and chickens
- Alternative fuels
- Energy Action Incentive Program
- Eco-Schools USA
Max Krueger
Max is our energy and data guru! Ring him up if you have questions about:
- Utility Monitoring
- Resource Conservation
- Energy Efficiency
- Energy Procurement
- Regulatory Assistance
- Collaboration