East Brunswick Vocational and Technical High School seniors Imani Redman, left, and Zachary Allbee tend to the school’s hydroponic herb garden, where basil is grown indoors and provided to the culinary arts students. COURTESY OF EAST BRUNSWICK VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL EAST BRUNSWICK — The East Brunswick Vocational and Technical High School has been awarded a Green Ribbon award by the U.S. Department of Education for its initiative to foster environmental responsibility.
A student garden, “living walls,” recycling initiatives, and health and wellness activities are all factors that earned the vocational school the prestigious honor.
One of only four schools in the state to receive the award, the school was applauded by U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) for its efforts to reduce environmental impact and costs, improve the health of students and staff, and promote environmental education.
According to Principal Jeffrey Bicsko, the vocational school has taken on multiple initiatives in order to create a “green” environment for staff and students.
“We’re doing a lot of energy retrofitting [such as] new, efficient boilers and efficient lighting,” Bicsko said. “[We’re trying] to retrofit the building so that it has less environmental impact, and that’s been a great thing.”
He said many initiatives focus on improving the health and wellness of the school population, such as hosting an annual community 5K and a Fitness Cup event involving students in fitness activities and charting their progress through the software program Fitnessgram.
“Some of our teachers teach yoga, especially in our dance program,” Bicsko said. “They do a lot [to help with] mental wellness.”
Bicsko praised the school’s Agriscience Technology department, which he said teaches students about botanical sciences. In three weeks, he noted, the campus will unveil its first student garden.
According to Bicsko, the school first became heavily involved in environmental initiatives six years ago.
“We had a courtyard that was kind of outdated, and we had some old dilapidated trailers that we were going to throw out,” he said. “But instead of throwing them out, we broke them down and reused everything, and we built a bridge in our courtyard using recycled metal. So we did some things before we even thought about what the Green Ribbon was.
“Since we’re a vocational school, everything we do we want to make sure it’s an educational classroom for kids, both in and out. So having the students take something that was supposed to go into the garbage and repurpose it to something that the students can use is a great learning process, and we were very proud of that.”
He also cited a partnership with Woodbridge Township to build “living walls” out of recycled bleachers.
“That kind of just snowballed into this tiny movement that our students and staff have of always being cognizant when throwing things out,” he said. “Can we reuse it? Can we repurpose it? And then it kind of transformed into this movement — we have a green program of study now that’s sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Education.”
He said he has noticed green education having a major impact on students and the way they apply the principles to everyday life.
“They have an ownership on it,” Bicsko said. “And that ownership turns into pride — and the purpose of this is to have them take what they learn here and apply it outside the classroom. That’s the magic of education.”
The three other schools that received Green Ribbons are Princeton Day School, Timber Creek Regional High School in Erial and William Davies Middle School in Mays Landing.
The aim of the Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program is to inspire schools, districts and institutions of higher education to strive for 21st-century excellence by highlighting exemplary practices and resources that all can employ.
Nationally, 58 schools, 14 districts and nine postsecondary institutions were honored for their promising efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs; promote better health; and ensure effective environmental education, including civics and green career pathways.