TUFSD Go Green

The Green Committee members have been working to reflect on our progress and revise our goals for the 2009-2010 school year.  Stay tuned, as the committee looks forward to sharing them with the community.  If you have any suggestions, please email them to greencommittee@tufsd.org or comment on this or any post on this blog!

Green Week (April 20-25) was a big SUCCESS across the district.  Students, staff and families participated in events that celebrated our environmental treasures, raised awareness about key environmental issues, and gave members of our community meaningful ways to start making a difference.  To read about the events of Green Week, go to our Green Week, 2009 page or click here.

Downloadable Flyers:

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Visit Survey Monkey to take our SPRING, 2009 PARENT SURVEY

Here are ways that the TUFSD staff suggest we can all reduce the environmental impact of our commutes to and from work and school.  Please comment to add more!

REDUCE YOUR COMMUTE TIPS:
* Ride your bike (even it it’s long…it’s Earth Day, right?!)
* Take the bus
* Drive with another person as a car pool (and it doesn’t have to be a TUFSD staff member, just someone who is travelling this way..)
* Take the train that comes to Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow
* Park and take the bus from Nyack over the bridge to the Tarrytown Train station
* Make sure the tire pressure is correct on yoru car and get the tires realigned to lower friction and drag on the car.
* Drive with the windows “UP!”…The windows open creates major drag that actually slows the car down and causes more fuel to be used.
*Take all unnecessary items out of the car to lower the weight. A lighter car means less energy needed to move it…That means, GET THE JUNK OUT OF THE TRUNK!
* Hug a tree when arriving at work. A happy tree makes more oxygen and does more photosynthesis (Not scientifically proven but seems logical…a 7th grade student would believe it)
*Offset your carbon footprint by landscapping at your house. More trees in your personal yard means you offset your driving even more)

The Green Committee Delivered the following challenge to all staff:

Next Wednesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. In honor of Earth day, we will run a REDUCE YOUR COMMUTE CHALLENGE.

Here’s how it works…

Anyone who reduces the carbon footprint of his or her commute next Wednesday, shall enjoy the following…
* The chance to DRESS DOWN that day
* Glory and honor in the eyes of all who love the planet
* The chance to enter a raffle for a Goodie Bag (reusable, of course) filled with GREEN TREATS and local delicacies

Ultimately, we hope that this may help some staff members make lasting changes in their behavior that could add up to large scale savings to the purse and the planet!

Daffodil planted by SHMS!

Ms. Linteau

On Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Mrs. Linteau’s English class and Mrs. Randazzo, went outside to visit the daffodils that were planted this past fall.  Initially, during the fall, students were given a lesson in metaphor that was twofold: first, students were to understand that beautifying nature should be appreciated and savored; secondly, students were to understand that protecting our earth is an investment in our future.  The growth of the daffodils is proof that our investment has paid off!  

Our next step was a lesson in external conflict.  Students are creating characters for their action/adventure pieces that will endure external conflict.  Our daffodils were the perfect examples to survey.  Not only has weather been a factor, but so has pollution.  In order to stop this immediately, students were ready and willing to go and pick up debris and waste that lay nearby their beautiful daffodils.  Also, each and every student committed not to throw trash on the ground.  All students agree that our earth is naturally beautiful and waste should be placed in the proper receptacles to be dealt with properly and efficiently.

 Thanks to Mrs. Randazzo for her great ideas and materials!  We’ll let you know what pops up next in SHMS!

During the week of March 9th, Green Committee members tracked the paper used to make copies at each building in the district. We compared those numbers to averages taken earlier in the year and were looking to see which building could reduce its paper use by the greatest percent. It was a CLOSE contest, but Washington Irving won with a remarkable 40% reduction in paper used to make copies. The staff at Washington Irving will soon be enjoying free COFFEE LABS coffee and have our congratulations! We are most thrilled to report that, as a whole, the district reduced our paper use by 35% during this week. That is fantastic and we hope that staff continue the good behaviors that led to this reduction!  Here is how each building did in the Challenge:

Now, thanks to the Green Committee, all buildings in the TUFSD District have new recycling centers.  Students, staff and visitors can use the easy-to-spot centers to recycle paper, plastic, glass and metal.  We are very grateful to our custodial staff for their diligent emptying of the bins.  We are also pleased to see that staff and students are using them to effectively recycle.  Please look for these centers next time you visit any of our schools or the district administration building.

Article written in December, 2008 by Matt, student member of SHHS’s own S.P.E.A.R. Club (Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility)     

           As you walk by the Main office chances are you’re going to notice the big sign with the leafy letters spelling out “Go Green.” A few more steps will bring you right into the student lounge, decorated from head to toe with posters dedicated to getting the word out on living the green life. Whether it’s facts about the time it takes for a plastic bottle to decompose or beautiful murals of coke-bottle trees, our little student lounge has an eco focus. This is all part of S.P.E.A.R.’s, Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility, special S.P.E.A.R.-IT week (get it, like spirit week). The whole week were working to get the word out on what we face as citizens of a constantly changing environment and what we can do to help it. All across the lounge we can see the little things that can have a devastating impact, but more importantly, we see the little things we can do to help. Just imagine if those 200 plastic bottles in those cardboard boxes all went to recycling. Imagine if we just shut off every light whenever we leave a room. Imagine how much water we could save by simply turning off the sink when we brush our teeth. We hope our little environmental club was able to delight you with neatly piled bottles and leafy green posters, but we plea that we all take a little bit of time to really make the change that is needed right now.

                The recycling bins in our school have for too long been blue trash bins. However, in recent days we have received brand spankin’ new bins; big, blue, glorious bins. These bins can be found all throughout the school, with a special slot for your bottles, papers, cans, and mixed. Along with these new recycling bins come new, uniform labels for every recycling bin. These labels will work to end the guessing game that we call recycling. No longer will we have to second guess everything we put in these bins, but instead we will be clearly told what is recyclable and where it goes. I gotta admit, I’ve found myself mindlessly confused on where I should put my Green County sandwich bag, but with the new labels that will soon be in place on and over these bins we’ll have the information we need.