Recognized by the state departments of Natural Resources and Public Instruction through the Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin initiative, Hawley Environmental teachers, staff, and students demonstrate a daily commitment to:
- Researching and reducing our school’s environmental impact,
- Improving school and community health and wellness, and
- Strengthening environmental and sustainability literacy among our students, families, and community.
To accomplish this, our school conducted Green & Healthy Schools’ health, safety, and environmental assessment, meeting requirements in the areas of chemical management, community involvement, energy, indoor air quality, mercury, pest management, school site/grounds, transportation, waste and recycling, and water. Incorporating this knowledge into our environmental education curriculum helps students accumulate STEM knowledge and skills, serve as campus conservationists, and prepare for global citizenship.
Redeveloped Schoolyard
Hawley’s redeveloped schoolyard, earth-sciences curriculum, and cleaner greener campus are strengthened by our membership in the Green Schools Consortium of Milwaukee and our partnership with the environmental education nonprofit, Reflo. In 2019, Reflo and Hawley Environmental School:
- Replaced 25 percent of our schoolyard asphalt with a new kickball field, underground cistern, and outdoor classroom.
- Installed new raised-bed planters and rain gardens
- Coordinated school Green Teams to maintain our redeveloped schoolyard.
Green Team(s)
Green Teams have been a Hawley Environmental School tradition for more than 20 years, keeping our school clean and consistent as we learn and live our values of conservation, preservation, beautification, and stewardship.
- Every week, one grade is assigned campus cleanup duty, which includes trash cleanup and composting and weeding in our three gardens (prairie, raised bed and sensory).
- Faculty Green Team includes educators from every grade.
- Weed Out Wednesdays bring school staff together as volunteers to plan Hawley’s vegetable gardens, STEM open house, and transplant vegetables and flowers from greenhouse to raised garden beds.