Students taking the Environmental II class have been working hard this year to re-certify North Harford’s Green School Status. They have taken action to increase the school’s environmental awareness and started many programs to reduce the school’s negative impact on the environment.
North Harford previously held Green School status, but every four years the status must be renewed.
North Harford High School isn’t the only school to have Green School status, right across the street, North Harford Elementary School just received their Green School status. In Harford County there a total of 20 schools with Green School status, including six high schools.
“Next time when we renew our status in four years we will become a model green school and we won’t have to renew again,” said junior Drew Hurley, a student in Environmental II that contributed to the recertification.
For the recertification, there were three sections that had to be addressed: curriculum inclusion, student best management practices (BMPs), and community partnerships. For curriculum inclusion, environmental issues were added to classes in high school and to our our feeder schools. “For student BMPs we started programs such as green minute, Homeroom recycling, and getting the new water bottle filler,” said Hurley.
Lynn Griffiths, the department chair of the Science department, led the students in the process. Griffiths said, “We had to document everything online, we used an online program to document everything.”
Students that helped to recertify our school include Arizoa Anistasio, Brent Bedsaul, Rob Beichler, Juliane Caughron, Michael Dellone, Drew Hurley, Steven Karas, and Eddie Sheeler all led by the head of the science department, Lynn Griffiths. “Other teachers that helped us a lot are Mrs. O’leary, Mrs. Smith, and Mr. Murrell,” said Hurley.