By Dikla Tuchman , JTNews Correspondent
Seattle Hebrew Academy parent Jo Kershaw cares about the environment. But her passion for being green goes beyond recycling and composting — she saw a way to improve the environmental impact on her children’s school and made it happen.
This month, SHA will receive its certificate from the Washington Green Schools program for reaching Level One status. Led by a team of teachers, parents — most notably Kershaw — and students, SHA paved the way for entry into the program through a “no idling” campaign at the beginning of the school year.
“People didn’t realize how detrimental the pollution that idling caused was,” said SHA principal Katie May. Being primarily a commuter school, SHA has a high percentage of cars and buses in its parking lot at drop-off and pick-up times, and it became apparent to parents like Kershaw that vehicles were creating a large amount of exhaust pollution as they sat idling in the lot.
“I saw the “˜no idle’ thing at one of the Mercer Island elementary schools,” Kershaw said. “I carpool and I noticed that people were really just sitting there and idling a lot. And it was really disgusting.”
Kershaw did her homework, and eventually stumbled upon the Washington Green Schools program, which places schools on a five-level track to becoming a “green school” in various areas of focus. Washington Green Schools program coordinator Rebecca Meredith has been working with SHA over the last year on its initiative.
Meredith pointed out that few schools begin their participation in the program with transportation as their focus. She said that as SHA students began to monitor the idling times in the parking lot, the total time vehicles idled amounted to 238 minutes in one week (morning and afternoon pick-up times).
Students stood in the parking lot with stopwatches and clipboards and carefully tracked bus drivers and parents as they sat with their motors running. Kershaw said that at first, parents were nervous about what was going on. But after the initial assessment, the education began.
Kershaw, May and other members of the “green team” sent out fliers, posted signs, had parents sign a pledge, and included information about the program in the school newsletters and emails.
“Most parents, once they knew what was going on, were really on board with it,” said May. “It’s not an attempt to control people’s habits but a way to make them aware.”
After the education came the change. Meredith said that by the spring, total idling time at SHA had dropped to 17 minutes per week, a 92 percent reduction from the beginning of the program. And idling times continue to diminish.
“We really encourage [students] to make a change that is feasible and measurable. It can be quantitative or qualitative,” Meredith said. Clearly impressed, Meredith reflected with a smile, “[SHA] achieved dramatic, beautiful results.”
Of course, there are still occasional idlers.
“We politely remind them to switch off. It’s peaceful and quiet and I’m really, really proud of [the change],” Kershaw said.
Kershaw said completing the project didn’t cost the school a penny. Help from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which monitors clean air throughout the Puget Sound, provided signage, fliers, pencils and key rings for incentive to say, “Thank you for signing the pledge,” which went a long way. PSCAA also provided SHA with a comprehensive plan and materials for monitoring.
Both May and Kershaw say the students have felt encouraged by the project. While they have not decided upon an area of focus to achieve Level Two certification, some ideas are floating around as students continue to implement other green programs around the school.
“The 2nd grade class is starting to put up laminated signs and hanging them near the light switches reminding people to turn off lights,” said May.
In addition, Kershaw is working with Seattle Public Utilities on a grant for SHA to do more composting and recycling.
“Educating parents and children about composting is important because they sometimes get really confused,” she said.
Seattle Hebrew Academy is not the first Jewish school to get green credentials. Bellevue’s Jewish Day School has achieved Level Two certification as a green school with King County’s green school program in spring of 2011.
Another project Kershaw would like to focus on is providing healthier products in the school. This project would fall under the “Healthy School Buildings” category for the Washington Green Schools program. The Environmental Working Group website has a database of products found in schools and ranks them by safety and effectiveness. Of course, Kershaw would love to see this project implemented next, “but leaving it up to the kids to choose” is important, she added.
Letting the students take ownership and propel the projects forward is one of the keys to success for making schools greener.
“A lot of times kids are told, “˜Oh you’re little.’ And they think, “˜What difference can I really make? I’m just one person,’” said May. “Being able to take on challenges like this sets them up for bigger battles in the future.”