Bill and Cindy - Healthy Schools Inventory

Green Council Meeting Minutes Thursday, October 2, 2008 Upper School (rm 115) Attendance: Chuck and Mason Niquette, Maxine Rudder and Pattie Stivender (with Bluegrass PRIDE), Bill Barnes, Judy Offutt, Deb Melear, and Debbie Wheeler

 Comments on Trip to Christ the King (to observe cafeteria composting) - Bill, Deb and Debbie - Parent volunteers in lunch room (not teachers) - Kids are well-trained (even the very young ones!) - Long narrow tables with compost containers for collecting material that can be composted and others for food that can't be (goes to pigs). Trash can for the rest. Then they head for the window to drop off tray. - Much smaller groups of children than we have. - Large composters outside - Middle Schoolers take out the compost at the end of lunch. - Can it work for us? . We have a lot more kids. Teachers would have to release kids 10 or so at a time. Have some one who can show them what to do there. Chuck: Rotate through each grade a student who can be responsible for showing others how to compost and organizing composting at lunch time. . Announce at LS what can and can't be composted when they announce the lunch menu. . Judy – Are there Upper School students that could help get it started . Chuck – Make posters with what can and can't go in the bins . Could the fourth graders help lead the Lower School and teach other kids? This is something the fifth grade will be doing. . Are there room mothers or parents that would help? . Find out from fifth grade teachers how soon they might be ready to compost. Deborah Melear – plans are in place to begin next spring. . We still don’t know whether there are area pig farmers who might be willing to pick up our non-compostable food waste. . Deb - so much food is thrown away at the LS, can spoons be smaller? Are there too many choices? Kids are choosing too much food. Bill says these issues are being addressed. Cafeteria personnel have rotated through the dish line to see how much food is let on plates and Richard (Bill’s assistant) is supervising servers to reduce the amount of food put on plates. . Do we have containers for 5th grade to get started? Yes, the fifth grade eats downstairs and they already separate their recycling, trays, and silverware anyway. . For all school recycling, we need to purchase large composters. Funding options?  Gardening with Kids group: http://www.kidsgardening.com/grants.asp  Turner Grants: http://www.turnerfoundation.org/grants/pa.asp

 October - Campus Sustainability Month - During the week of Oct 20th, we will measure food waste, water bottles will be removed during the Middle & Upper School lunches, and there will be no carry out containers available. - Jean Ellen Paulson has been asked to be in the Buttery selling water bottles from the store during this week - Bill noted, that we currently purchase 30-40 cases of bottled water per week, at a cost of $210.00-280.00 weekly, or $7560.00-10,080.00 annually. I would not recommend totally doing away with bottled water, but if people would take only one bottle, then refill their bottle, we could cut our annual cost of water in half. - Talk to Heidi and Tim about removing carry out containers permanently from the Buttery, especially for students. Students have been approved to hold meetings in the Jasko room (with their club sponsor). - Bill has started a discussion with the heads of our school about removing to go wares permanently. In a recent email to the faculty, he wrote, “The school could purchase the Rubbermaid reusable to go containers for all to use every day. Besides filling the land fill with all this Styrofoam, we are spending $75.00/week, or $2750.00/annually on throw-away containers. The cost of the Rubbermaid products are about $2.75 each, which would be a substantial initial investment, and they would be thrown away like our soup bowls and flatware, I’m sure…but I estimate we would spend $275.00-325.00 the first year, and maybe $60-75 annually to replace missing ones. Compare this to the current $2750.00 now being spent on throwaways.” One of the issues with this is how they would get washed. Bill can wash those for the faculty, but it is more problematic to provide containers and to wash them for all the students. - Convincing all the stakeholders at our school to remove to go wares will be an on-going process. - Anne Allen, our new MS Art teacher, has made posters with her classes to advertise sustainability month. - Bill has met with LS students on how to publicize the event. Our focus is on the week of October 20th. - Cans for Cash will also occur during October (Oct. 1st to 31st). . US participating as an advisory contest. . LS participating as class contest. . At this point, we are unsure if the MS is participating.

 Conversation with Martha Tarrant - Concerning LEED certification, the most important features are 3rd party review - recognition for accomplishing your goal. - We should consider other forms of recognition and look for which one fits us best. . Do we meet the prerequisites for LEED certification? . We can also consider the Energy Star Program Rating System. We need to collect 1 year's worth of utility bills and conduct energy modeling with engineers. We could meet this standard if our utility use is in the top 25% of similar structures for our climate for energy efficiency. - Brooks McLamb told Bill that sustainability is a focus for KAIS this year. He is meeting with other financial officers to focus on green issues. We need to talk to Brooks.

 Community Activities & Conferences - “Closing the Food Gap” – October 16-18 . Organized by Jim Embry . Bringing Mark Winne, author of the book “Closing the Food Gap” to discuss regional food issues - Bluegrass Green Expo - October 24 & 25th at Heritage Hall - The Good Foods Coop has formed a task group to examine local food issues and the best ways for the coop to address it. - Gleaning is a new idea that is getting some exposure. Groups of folks in a community get together to collect fruit from neighborhood trees and distribute it to God’s Pantry and other needy groups. - Maxine of Bluegrass PRIDE reminded us of the contest to develop litter signs. Due Oct 31st. Post - have that made to post at schools. Call Pattie if we need more information she can talk to students about what they're looking for.

 Next Meeting Date : October 30th at 3:30