Page 46 - Priorities #67 2017 Spring

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Greetings Earth People,
This school year we continue to see progress from the Priory sustainability program. At various levels, the school has demonstrated sustained efforts at greening the campus. It is exciting to have a chance to provide details on a few of our efforts.
In December, the school once again submitted an application to the Green Ribbon Schools award program. This award program is sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Education. Once again, the school’s sustainability efforts were showcased with positive results, leading us to earn a gold medal level of recognition for the third year in a row. Highlights on this year’s application included details about the student-made living wall, the award-winning green architecture in the new classroom building, the school’s leadership in drought planning and water conservation, new developments in the garden, and the spirited efforts of the student Sustainability Club. We are looking forward to maintaining this level of success and recognition in the future.
On another front, I am proud to describe our efforts at the eradication of a non-native species on campus. This has been a collaborative effort between members of the sustainability club and the school’s service learning projects. This year’s sophomore service week included opportunities for students to remain on campus and help to remove yellow star thistle. Yellow star thistle is a nasty non-native and invasive species that has found its way into San Mateo County and onto the Priory campus. Star thistle makes the Priory hillside uninviting to hikers, and reduces habitat quality for native members of our grassland community. We are hopeful that our efforts at removal can continue into the future, and can ultimately triumph over this vexing plant. Indeed, the environmental problems that confront this and future generations of students will need to be managed with sustained and collaborative efforts that are enacted in disparate places and by people who are not known to one another. It is our hope that the lessons that students learn from tackling a local environmental problem can be applied to strategies for solving global environmental problems.
A major cornerstone of the Priory’s sustainability program is the Franklin Garden, where students enrolled in the ecological design class, the food in literature class, and the Garden and Food production class have worked to keep the garden flourishing. The classes have developed an enclosed compost area and most importantly, raise a flock of nearly 60 hens, which eat through kitchen food waste and produce manure essential for nour- ishing the plants of the garden. The hens have become important new members of the Priory community. The eggs from the hens as well as other produce from the garden will be available for sale in weekly farm-stands in the carpool line after school.
So, as the final days of the school year wind down and we welcome the approach of summer, we are proud of our continued learning and stewardship here at the Priory, and we look forward to the chance to continue our work in the future. Always we begin again!
Sincerely,
Hovey Clark Sustainability Director
SUSTAINABILITY