State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that 21 schools and two school districts earned 2021 California Green Ribbon Schools awards. Among these state honorees are five “Green Achievers” nominated by the State Superintendent to receive U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) recognition.
The U.S. Department of Education today confirmed all five Green Achievers as ED-GRS honorees, which are recognized for conserving resources while promoting health and environmental literacy.
Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, Desert Sands Unified, Riverside County is one of the five confirmed Green Achievers. Located in California's arid Coachella Valley, Roosevelt provides an education program that helps its students be environmentally conscious, civic-minded, healthy, and college- and career-ready. Since 2014, the school has participated in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program, which informed and inspired its wellness policy. The school's STEM program focuses on renewable energy sources and ecological design to reduce carbon's impact on the environment. In 2020, the school began work with the United States Green Building Council's Building Learners program. The program teaches students and staff to use the Arc Skoru online sustainability benchmarking platform to evaluate the school for resource efficiency opportunities. At the end of the program, students will present sustainability recommendations to the City of Indio and the Desert Sands Unified School Board.
The California Green Ribbon Schools award uses the applications submitted for ED-GRS recognition to recognize schools and school districts for environmental excellence.