Meet one of Maryland's Newest Green Schools: Leonardtown High School

Leonardtown High School (LHS) prides itself on being college and career oriented and being focused on helping all of our students succeed and we are very excited about our growing environmental commitment. This commitment ties into all aspects of our school from how it is cleaned to what and how students are being taught. We recognize that environmental literacy and practice cannot be separate from a successful school. While the journey has not been easy and is far from over, the culture at LHS has evolved in many significant ways regarding our Green School undertaking.

The LHS community has become increasingly proactive in our efforts to become and act in an environmentally conscious manner. In the past, there were individual students and faculty who chose to recycle, reduce waste, and conserve energy in their classrooms. Now, our entire student body, faculty, and staff are aware, encouraged, and provided the opportunities and means to put best practices into action. Each classroom has a recycling bin that is collected multiple times a week by the SAIL Program students. More recycling containers than trashcans have been placed in the cafeteria where students eat off of reusable trays. Environmental literacy messages are shared weekly if not daily on our student led televised announcements. Due to these and many other activities, our recycling has doubled over the past two years.

The Green School Coordinator and Green School team, in cooperation with administration have developed a very productive working relationship with our Building Service Worker Team not only in waste reduction and green cleaning, but also in reaching milestones in energy consumption. Energy Consumption has been reduced by over 15% in the past few years due to a concerted effort to examine our consumption and to make improvements. LHS students are also encouraged to share their environmental knowledge and commitment with the rest of the school. This has led to endeavors such as a student created information plate for each light switch reminding everyone to turn off the lights when not in use.

These achievements are only possible because the entire school community has united in the effort to become a Green School. LHS’s commitment to Green School certification is about making our school a more healthy, economical, environmentally friendly location where environmental literacy is part of the curriculum and general atmosphere. Wherever you go in LHS, we want it show that we are green. As is shown in our documentation, all aspects of our school from instruction to professional development to the practices used for cleaning and heating take into account best management practices. The value of being a Green School is important to the LHS community.