This spring marks an Earth Day milestone for KLSD

 Spring means starting seeds and planting an edible garden at each of KLSD's elementary schools. This year, when children put in their school garden, they are using compost from the facility where KLSD sends food scraps and other cafeteria waste.

Students are seeing how nature recycles in a more personal way because the dark and crumbly soil amendment they are putting on their school's garden was once their leftover sandwiches and apple cores. 

All three KLSD elementary schools have been taking their food scraps out of the waste stream since the 2012-2013 school year.

elementary school earth month highlights

Katonah Elementary

   

This April, Katonah Elementary School asked families to take the 10% Pledge.

“Famiies are focused on saving electricity by turning off lights, using cloth napkins instead of paper, using sustainable water bottles to reduce the use of plastic water bottles, and saving water by taking faster showers,” said Terry Costin, Vice Principal of Katonah Elementary School. "Walk and Ride to School Fridays have also started."

Increase Miller

  

"All students experienced the  Earth Balloon® at the end of April," said Increase Miller Elementary School's Assistant Principal Andy Galotti.

The Earth Adventure Ballooon is a 20' diameter inflatable earth made from high resolution satellite images with true to life colors. Students enter the Earth Balloon through the International Date Line and sit on Antarctica where they can see the earth in its entirety from inside the globe. MORE PHOTOS.

Meadow Pond

  

In mid-April, Meadow Pond Elementary School held a Town Meeting that focused on responsibility and related that to being responsible to the earth.

"We played a game called 'Is that responsible or not?'" said Assistant Principal Dawn Pomeroy. "The fifth grade ambassadors gave the rest of the students scenarios and asked for thumbs up or thumbs down responses." Eleven students from fifth grade also participated in the Earth Day Poster Contest hosted by the New York State Senate.

Spring in the KES Greenhouse

Earth Day Posters

"Author for Earth Day" Peter Lourie

 Adventurer and award-winning nonfiction author Peter Lourie has an interesting proposition for students at Meadow Pond Elementary School. Lourie will donate $1,000 to an environmental nonprofit. The students' job is to research the four organizations he is considering and vote for the one they think is the best when he visits on June 7.

"This is an interesting opportunity for students to realize they can make a difference in the world," said Dawn Pomeroy, Assistant Principal at Meadow Pond Elementary School. 

Peter Lourie will give presentations to students in grades three, four, and five about his books--including Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush. Lost Treasure of the Inca, The Manatee Scientists: Saving Vulnerable Species, Hudson River: An Adventure from the Mountains to the Sea, The Polar Bear Scientists, and Tierra Del Fuego: A Journey to the End of the Earth. He will also tell the students why is a member of Authors for Earth Day.  

Welcome to the Earth Balloon

KLSD Commitment to Sustainability

 KLSD is committed to sustainability. The Board of Education appointed Sustainability Committee has helped KLSD reduced paper use by about 40%, and reduce its greenhouse gas by 24%. It also worked with the transportation department to pass an anti-idling law for buses and cars, and upgrade district buses to clean diesel. The district now fertilizes fields with a compost tea rather than chemicals and has replaced many water fountains with water bottle filling stations. The district-wide composting program has received Green Awards from the Town of Bedford, an Earth Day Recognition Award from Westchester County, and two grants from the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse & Recycling.