National Green ribbon Award
2019 National Green Ribbon Award - CR School District
The Caesar Rodney School District is one of only 14 districts across the nation to be honored with a 2019 Green Ribbon award from the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the winners today. Across the country, 35 schools and four postsecondary institutions also were honored for their innovative efforts to address the three “pillars” of the program: reducing environmental impact and utility costs, improving health and wellness, and ensuring effective sustainability education.
Caesar Rodney was recognized because of its ongoing work in the area. For example, each of the 12 schools in the district has its own student-led EcoTeam, giving all students from prekindergarten to 12th grade “an outlet to share and work out their ideas for Delaware green schools and to collaborate with each other.” Students have led reforms, such as the “share tables” started in some cafeterias. Children place unopened, unwanted items on the table for others in an effort to reduce food waste.
2016 - 17 National Green Ribbon Award - PMS
Postlethwait Middle School
The U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees prove that any school, district, or postsecondary institution can take steps to improve the sustainability, health, and safety of school facilities; ensure nutrition and fitness practices for a lifetime of wellness and productivity; and engage students in authentic, real-world learning. Schools use sustainability in context to teach important civic values and skills that encourage students to grow into responsible, compassionate, and contributing citizens. Furthermore, working with dynamic environmental, social, and economic systems from an early age nurtures precisely the type of thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills that careers of the future require, whether these students graduate from green career and technical programs, green college preparatory schools, community colleges, or liberal arts colleges. In 2011, key advocates steered some 80 national and state-based nonprofits to request that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) honor schools that demonstrate having a significant and positive effect on the green schools movement.