Club Feature: The Green School Committee
November 29, 2022
The Green School Committee is one of the many clubs that Roosevelt hosts. The county recognizes Roosevelt as a Green School because of its commitment to the environment. The Green School Committee recognizes and documents current green practices at ERHS, implements new green practices at ERHS, and brings awareness to the current green practices at ERHS.
The Green School committee has many students and staff members that do different tasks around the school to ensure a safer environment. The different departments include recycling programming. Mr.Eisenberg and Ms.McMann are the advisers for the green school committee this year, and Ms.McMahon is the sponsor of the Environmental Defense Club and they are the students that run the recycling program.
The Environmental Defense Club works really hard when making sure things are sorted out and not thrown away. Recycling is picked up once- weekly on Tuesday morning- by volunteers from the club. “Each classroom has been provided with a recycling bin. Students volunteer to grab large, rolling recycling on each floor. Then, students return the full rolling bins,” said Ms.McMahon. She would like to thank Mr.Dent and the custodial team who help them empty the rolling bins into the larger recycling dumpster which is picked up by the city recycling each week.
Mya Miller is the president of the Environmental Defense Club, she is a student member of the Green School Committee. She shares why she joined the committee, explaining that she “wanted to help the school and help the environment even more than she does and that was the reason for joining the club”. She also shared what projects the Green School Committee is putting in place, like an “educational aspect teaching staff about the environment and intergrading that into the curriculum, and taking surveys around the school on how environmental Roosevelt is”. She hopes that composting is a long-term thing and that other schools encourage their students to do it as well and keep it going, hoping that the next leader keeps what they have already done in place going forward.
The recycling program stayed busy during the years 2020-2021 during the pandemic and didn’t let them stop them from doing what they do best, students got creative and did some really impressive things. The Environmental Defense Club partnered with PG Climate Parents to bring testimonials to the school board about passing a clean energy initiative. It did successfully pass! “It was so Neat to see our students presenting in front of the Board for all PGCPS’ said Ms. McMahon.
November 15 was the celebration of America Recycles Day. There were e tables outside the cafeteria to bring awareness to the importance of recycling. The library was also decorated. “Students also started composting program in the cafeteria, the students have worked really hard to bring awareness to the student body of what is trash and recycling composting,” said Ms. McMahon. She is excited to see where that work continues to go.
Activities that Mr. Eisenberug mentioned that “his students in previous years wanted to do a butterfly garden, designed to make a habitat for butterflies because they are pollinators, and it’s there to help maintain that butterfly population. “Butterflies pollinate and there is a symbolic relationship where the pollen is very important to getting our plants growing and to grow most of our food we want these pollinators said, Mr. Eisenberg. This is good for our school because they are providing a habitat for pollinators and that applies to green schools. They also have other gardens like rain gardens that direct water so they can control erosions”.
Nneamaka Agwumezie member of the green school committee and the co-president of the ERHS “Get Into Tech Club. She shares why she joined the committee, what they do for our school, and what they look forward to doing in the future for the well-being of our school. She shares that her motive for joining the committee was to lead a more active role in supporting the environmental health of my community and encouraging other students to do the same. She explained what the Get into Tech Club is “ This program gives students innovation and gives back to the community through ongoing projects like pollinator gardens, and aquaponic gardens. They plan to expand their impact even further than this in the future.
Eleanor Roosevelt High School became a Green School in 1999, and we were recertified as a Green School in 2015, and Mr.Eisenbureg in 2018 and we recertified again in 2019. Mr.Eisenburg also shared that “The Maryland Green Schools program is a nationally recognized program. As a Green School, we get a lot of support from a network of green centers, community, and statewide partners.” When asked how the foundation can impact outside of the school Eisennerug said that it allows us to form a lot of partnerships and offer students a lot of opportunities.