The Lawrence Township Public Schools (LTPS) has been awarded a $2,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey for Schools to fund the district’s Green Team members to continue to develop sustainable initiatives.
The Sustainable Jersey for Schools grant is one of 25 grants for $2,000 that were distributed to school districts to support sustainability projects. An additional 13 grants for $10,000 each also were awarded to school districts around the state.
The Sustainable Jersey for Schools grants were funded by the New Jersey Education Association. The union represents more than 200,000 teachers, administrators, professors, support personnel and retirees, as well as students preparing to become educators.
Together, the Sustainable Jersey for Schools grants supported a variety of projects – from outdoor school gardens to outdoor classrooms and food waste, recycling and waste reduction initiatives.
The $2,000 grant awarded to LTPS will help the district’s Green Team members develop additional sustainability projects, school district officials said.
At the elementary schools, teachers are decreasing their use of paper throughout instruction by using dry-erase sleeves, for example, said Cari Gallagher, the school district’s sustainability leader.
“We continue to educate our students on the importance of trees and how they cleanse the air,” Gallagher said.
Classrooms also are blooming with aerogardens for character education connections and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) sensor breaks, she said.
At Lawrence Middle School and Lawrence High School, teachers use novels and literary resources for students to connect to climate action and mitigation for the environment, Gallagher said.
Students themselves are taking on leadership roles, encouraging their classmates to sort their waste into recycling and landfill trash.
The school district takes pride in providing students with environmental objectives, creating an educational community in which “each school shines with sustainability,” Gallagher said.