School wide environmental
behavior changes
From 2011-2013, Bollman Bridge underwent an enormous renovation, leaving no part of our building untouched. The environmentally friendly renovation worked beautifully in conjunction with the changes we have been working on over the past four years. Many of the Best Management Practices have become irrelevant actions for us (lighting, heat, and water usage in particular) as our building responds to activity. In this section, we document many of the environmentally friendly changes made to our building. And, as such, the Best Management Practices are highly focused on Waste Reduction, as it is an area that our students can lead and impact greatly, even with our earth-friendly building. We are also beginning the process of adding back the trees and plants that the construction destroyed. That will clearly be a great portion of our 2017 application for re-certification.
5th Graders HOST A MEETING
Many of our changes were decided and implemented by the Howard County Public School System's Central Office, it was a group of 5th graders who led the charge to find out about what was happening. (See "Best Management Practices: Energy Conservation".) They organized and hosted a meeting with the builders and architects (almost a year in the making!). Then, they taught the rest of the community about the changes included in this section through a series of homeroom question and answer sessions. |
ONLINE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
In the fall of 2013, we started sending out a weekly newsletter online. The paper and energy reduction is astronomical. While we still have some families who need paper copies, the vast majority of the school (staff and parents alike) receive the newsletter online. See "Community Partnerships" for more details on how the PTA, administration, and staff created our ideal and continue to work towards it.
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MOtion sensing lights
TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS!
You know when you forget to turn off the light? I've been there, but not anymore with Bollman Bridge automatic lights. Awesome, right? So now every time you forget to turn off the lights, you won't waste energy- just another way the Bollman Bridge is the best, and soon the greenest school you'll see. Bollman is saving the earth one step at a time. We don't procrastinate on helping the earth. -Femi, 5th grade |