Vacation travel highlights sustainability efforts elsewhere

Portland compost-recycle bins

I vacationed in Oregon and Washington this summer and was amazed by the efforts made toward sustainability.  In downtown Portland as I stepped off the light rail, I found recycling and composting bins.

The most amazing story was Lopez Island. It is a small island with a modest fishing village about about 1 ½ hours northwest of Seattle.  The 2,300 people who live here have a median household income of $46,000 – roughly the same as here.

In the very center of this island is Lopez Island School (www.lopezislandschool.org), which has integrated schoolyard gardens and local foods into its curriculum, cafeteria and lifestyle.

Raised vegetable beds at Lopez Island School

This is known as the K-12 LIFE (Lopez Island Farm Education) Garden and Farm Program and consists of the following components:

Portable kitchen

• A garden coordinator who coordinates the 1 hour per week of time each student spends either in the garden or with the portable kitchen (elementary)
•  In the garden you will find raised beds, tunnel hoop houses (mini-greenhouses) to extend the growing season, pumpkin patches, fruit trees, herb gardens.
• In the classrooms are grow lights for plant starts and an area for cleaning seeds.
• At the elementary level, students use a portable kitchen and can be found making humus, cooking stir fry or making kale chips.
• They have a location to mill wheat on site, which they use to make bread and tortillas.
• S&S Homestead Farm is a high school elective. Students conduct research and learn biodynamic instruction, canning, cheese-making, sausage making and milking.
• The high school culinary class uses garden produce in their cooking.
• On site composting.

High-achieving students

Lopez Middle/High School was awarded a Silver medal for Best High Schools in the 2013 US News and World Report ranking of the nation’s best public high schools. Lopez School ranked #21 of 584 schools in Washington State and in the top 1,000 nationally. Lopez improved from their 2012 rank of Bronze.

         Student/Teacher Ratio                   Algebra                  English

#21

Lopez Middle High School 86 SCHOOL RD LOPEZ ISLAND, WA 98261 Lopez School District #964 Nationally Ranked

Smaller than WA Avg 129 Students 10 Teachers

Above WA Avg 90% Proficient 10% Not Proficient

Near WA Avg 86% Proficient 14% Not Proficient

                                   

In North Carolina, Butler High School in Matthews was rated 3^rd in the state.  The demographics at Butler High School are significantly higher than Lopez Island, median income is $72,000 compared to Lopez Island at $46,000.

Student/Teacher Ratio             Algebra               English

Butler High 1810 MATTHEWSMINT HILL ROA MATTHEWS, NC 28105 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools #642 Nationally Ranked

Larger than NC Avg 2,171 Students 115 Teachers

Above NC Avg 80% Proficient 20% Not Proficient

Above NC Avg 85% Proficient 15% Not Proficient

Source:  US News and World Report