CVHS fails to meet Green Ribbon qualifications

For the first time ever, CVHS did not receive the CV Sanitary District (CVSan) Green Ribbon certification. CVHS is the only school in the district to not receive the Green Ribbon certification this year, which will cost the school about $3,000 in funding.

The Green Ribbon program is offered by CVSan which encourages schools to be more environmentally friendly.

In order to achieve the Green Ribbon funds, the school is supposed to meet the requirements of successfully completing activities from multiple sections which relate to creating an environmentally friendly campus and student body.

“We rolled out a pilot program in the 100 and 700 halls where they were going to have just three bins in their classroom; one organics, one garbage, one recycling. From that, one student a day would empty the recycling into the big bins in the hallways and then the custodial crew would be responsible for the garbage and the organics only,” said leadership teacher Michael Kentris.

But problems arose with trying to make such a system work. Some teachers simply forgot to empty the bins every day, some tried to make it work, while others were upset with the program intruding on class time.

CVHS successfully completed all other requirements in order to achieve the Green Ribbon, but was unable to complete the pilot program which ultimately prevented the school from receiving the certification.

“We worked incredibly hard with custodians and CVSan to try and make it something we could roll out this year, but due to pushback in the hallways we weren’t able to push it out schoolwide and so we weren’t able to achieve Green Ribbon this year,” said Kentris.

Since CVHS did not receive the funding, the school will have less money to spend on environmental programs next year.