Green Team Leaders Reflect and Plan

Student and Staff Leaders from Tahoma, Cle Elum, and Seattle share sustainability practices and collaborate across districts with support from E3 Washington, work sponsored from a grant from the Boeing Company.   

“Sustainability is not a proposal for the future, not a problem from the past, but a solution created by the present,” Paul Hawken once said. This was the conclusion many drew from a Green Team Lead gathering held in McKinstry. District Officials, students, and Green Team Advisors from every campus attended this day of reflection held at McKinstry on June 21, 2012. Kim McHenry said “I’m excited that the Green Teams throughout the district are getting this opportunity to network today and talk about success as well as challenges.” Although it was held right after school was over there was a certain excitement and energy in the air, because everyone that attended was passionate about their cause. Many Green Team Advisors were happy to finally see their counterparts in other schools. With the new proposal to have Voice over Internet Protocol communication systems within the district, Dawn Wakeley states “Folks [Green Teams] work hard because they are in isolation, collaboration will help solve larger problems.” After hearing from all 8 campuses, Tahoma was able to see what steps they could take to promote their sustainability education and stewardship. Integration was the largest step in the process. With the addition of guest speakers the students were able to see the importance of sustainability education in their futures. Also helping the staff analyze the success of Tahoma’s current curriculum as well as future initiatives to pursue. The meeting gave an amazing insight to see what other school districts are doing, and also to reflect on better strategies that Tahoma could take. While analyzing our current practices we also brainstormed ideas to pursue. The realization that we create the future today hit everyone that attended and the compelling sense of action drove future talks.

Guest Post by Student Green Team Leader, Jayaram