Manhattan Beach Unified School District awarded 2016 California Green Ribbon School Award

By Bari Cohn

Staff Writer

The California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson awarded the Manhattan Beach Unified School District as one of the five 2016 California Green Ribbon Schools Award Winners on Feb. 26 for its environmental efforts and its reduction in waste and energy.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools recognition program nominated MBUSD based on its sustainable procedures. This was the first time MBUSD has won the award, after it won the Silver Medal Status in 2015 and Grand View Elementary School won the Green Schools Award in 2012. The other award winners included the Los Angeles Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, Bay Farm School and Bishop O’Dowd High School.

“The award itself has no effect on our district but all of the hard work that went into it is what has impacted our schools the most,” Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “We’ve always placed an emphasis on being eco-friendly and putting in extra effort to be more green conscious and will continue to do all of these things.”

A total of 25 states joined in the national effort to recognize schools that are teaching and practicing sustainable methods. Each school or district must apply for this award, and in the application, they must describe and include data about how much energy they are using and whether or not that has decreased or increased compared to previous years. The application also asks for specific information about green procedures in schools such as water use and classroom gardens.

“It is very important that we are using eco-friendly practices throughout our district,” Matthews said. “We must continue to be environmentally friendly for the generations to come.”

MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews and three out of the 35 members of the MBUSD Green Committee, a group of members of the community whose main goal is to work towards reducing the carbon footprint in MBUSD schools, traveled to Alameda County on Feb. 26 to receive the nomination award for MBUSD. The State Superintendent of Education Tom Torlakson presented this award to the winners.

“Since last year we have made many changes,” Matthews said. “We have added the solar panels at Mira Costa as well as reducing our waste as a whole, and since doing so have now receive the highest award in the state.”