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Keep Hampton Schools Beautiful Program Wins National Award!

The Keep Hampton Schools Beautiful Program won the 2007 Keep America Beautiful National Award for Beautification & Community Improvement.   The program is a collaborative effort of HamptonCitySchools, Hampton Parks & Recreation, Hampton Neighborhood Commission, the VolunteerCenter of the VirginiaPeninsula, United Way Day of Caring, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Hampton Master Gardeners, the Hampton Clean City Commission, and many individual and group volunteers.   The award was presented at the Keep America Beautiful Annual Conference in Washington, DC on December 7.

The Keep Hampton Schools Beautiful Program, a true partnership, was initiated to improve the curbside appearance of Hampton schools and to involve more community partners in maintaining beautiful landscapes at the schools.  The program piloted in 2006 with five schools – Barron, Lee, and MalloryElementary Schools and Eaton and Lindsay Middle Schools. 

Hampton Parks & Recreation employees Megan Ketchum, Parks Manager, and Jim Williams, Horticulture and Landscape Manager, developed landscape templates for the schools that focused on easy-to-maintain, drought-resistant native and adapted species that would provide beauty year-round and withstand the temperature extremes of the area.  The Parks Division teams and Hampton Master Gardeners provided logistical and supervisory support for the initial planting and then for subsequent maintenance efforts.  Ann Bane, Director of Community & Legislative Relations for Hampton City Schools, coordinated with school officials and wrote grant applications for the effort.  The Hampton Neighborhood Commission funded a large portion of the project through its neighborhood grants program.  The VolunteerCenter recruited the volunteers for the initial planting through the United Way Day of Caring and then helped recruit volunteers for subsequent maintenance efforts.  The Hampton Clean City Commission helped recruit volunteers, worked with the schools on the follow-up maintenance projects, and provided whatever planning support was needed.   The Keep School Beautiful Committees at the schools planned and implemented maintenance days and recruited and managed volunteers for their schools’ efforts. 

Schools competed for inclusion in the program in 2007.  Successful candidates were Burbank, Cary, Forrest, and Tarrant Elementary Schools and Hampton High School.

In addition, Asbury, Cooper, Kecoughtan, and Mary Peake schools have all joined the program without landscape installations.

Other schools participate in school beautification efforts, including signing up for school cleanup kits offered by Hampton Parks & Recreation and the Clean City Commission.

The Keep Hampton Schools Beautiful Program will eventually expand to all Hampton City Schools, as long as funding can be obtained.  It is a premier example of how a community working together can make a tremendous difference in our children’s quality of life.

For more information about the Keep Hampton Schools Beautiful Program or similar programs and activities, contact the Hampton Clean City Commission at hccc@hampton.gov or 757-727-1130.

Greenbrier Intermediate School LEGO Team Earns Top Award for Energy Solutions!
Congratulations are in order for the 2007/2008 Greenbrier Intermediate School FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League robotics team for being selected as a First Place Award recipient at the regional competition at Old Dominion University, and progressing to the state FIRST LEGO League competition at James Madison University on December 9, 2007.  There they earned another First Place Award for their research project presentation. 

This year’s theme for the LEGO competition was alternative energy resources.  The GRI LEGO team utilized research and coordination skills to prepare a presentation that encompassed various aspects of the energy concerns of today.  Local energy usage data was compiled and charted to illustrate possible energy savings at their school.  Energy audits were accomplished to define positive energy usage behaviors, and to identify areas that were in need of improved energy usage efficiency.  The LEGO team developed a skit with a cast of characters, based upon actual experts that they interviewed, discussing possible energy waster activities and conditions present in their building. The experts included personnel from the school system’s Energy Department, School Plants, the Chesapeake Center for Science and Technology, Greenbrier Intermediate School, the North American Association for Environmental Education, and Virginia-based Building Logics, Inc. The presentation skit was complete with charts, graphs, illustrations, and (of course) the Energy Hog.  Energy waster conditions were identified, energy efficient solutions were applied, and the Energy Hogs were reduced.  The robotics segment of the competition illustrated the development and applications of solutions to possible energy resources concerns.  A student-constructed autonomous robot was used to obtain, locate, and apply various energy solutions to certain energy problems, in a table-mounted demonstration application.

Dominion Power, one of the sponsors of the event, awarded $1,000 to the Greenbrier team to fund the further implementation of energy saving equipment and strategies throughout their school. 

Judging of the teams was accomplished on each team member’s response to success, failure, teamwork, innovative ideas, knowledge/research, the skit that they wrote to demonstrate their learning, and how the research was shared.   LEGO team members Aliyah Chandler, Kirsten Crichton, Athony D’Angelo, Austin Davis, Irum Khan, Becca Meigs, Angelica Orlanda, Rayjon Ratliff, Logan Voorhees, and Clayton Ward represented their school and the City of Chesapeake well.   Mr. John Sammons, GRI, and Ms. Karen Arnett, GATE, provided teacher guidance to the team. 

Loudoun Valley High School
A group of about 20 students from Loudoun Valley High School gathered last week at a storm-water retention pond in a nearby townhouse development. Over the course of 90 minutes, they planted flowers and put down mulch to create a footpath around the pond.

The students were applying lessons learned in class, but also creating a legacy that will extend far beyond the grades they receive in the spring. The planting marked the beginning of the pond's transformation into a wetlands habitat, a project that the students designed and that will take two to three years.

"What we're trying to do is improve the water quality and turn it into a natural habitat so people can walk around the pond and view the wildlife," said John DeMary, one of two instructors who teaches the year-long course called Environmental Explorations. "We're making it accessible to the community."

York County Schools Receive EPA Recognition
In the mission to find clean, safe and sustainable energy, York County is leading the way. The York County School Division is one of only 29 school districts in the United States to be recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Energy Star leader.

This recognition stems in part from York County's usage of geothermal energy in four of its school buildings. With an additional two schools currently under renovation, one-third of the county's schools will soon be energy-efficient.

Geothermal heat pumps are similar to ordinary heat pumps, yet employ the ground instead of outside air to provide heating, air conditioning and, often, hot water. Because they make use of the earth's natural heat, they are among the most efficient and comfortable heating and cooling technologies currently available.

York County officials have found that the geothermal heat pumps are less complicated and simpler to maintain than standard air-to-air heat pumps. That have also used several methods to reduce the initial installation cost of the systems.

"Utility and maintenance expenses are lower over the life cycle of geothermal systems despite a higher initial cost," said Mark Tschirhart, Supervisor of Resource & Security Control for the York County School Division. "The demand for geothermal heating and air-conditioning will grow as schools continue to face rising utility and maintenance costs. School systems that do not investigate and implement a geothermal alternative are missing a significant opportunity."

School renovations also included other environmentally friendly measures: energy-efficient lighting in classrooms, offices and hallways; Direct Digital Control building automation systems to further increase energy efficiency; and, permanent CO2 and humidity monitoring.

Aside from the resulting drop in energy usage, the financial savings from the switch have been substantial, too. At Bruton High School for example, the cost per square foot dropped from over $1.00 in fiscal year 2001 to under $.60 in fiscal year 2006. Tschirhart finds that the county is reaping the savings at the geothermal schools, even while allowing the teachers to adjust their room temperature up or down within set parameters.