Energy-efficient
Officials from the Department of Energy and Owens Corning convened at a school in Washington recently to outline their plans for making public school buildings more energy- efficient and to release a new, student-drafted proclamation on the topic.
Organizers plan to gather electronic signatures from students, parents, and others for the energy-efficiency proclamation, which is to be delivered to the nation’s school superintendents in April.
The Nov. 18 event was part of the EnergySmart Schools program, launched last year by the Energy Department to help reduce energy consumption in schools and encourage the use of clean-energy technologies. Twelve students who won an essay contest this fall on the topic “Saving energy starts with me” were brought to Washington to attend a summit and draft the proclamation.
The event was hosted by Patterson Elementary School, one of 10 elementary schools in Washington with plans to make changes to reduce energy use.
The proclamation is online at
http://www.eren.do e.gov/energysmartsch ools/teach_check.html.
New American High Schools
Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley honored this year’s “New American High Schools” at a Nov. 19 Washington, D.C. awards ceremony held in the Old Executive Office Building
Since 1996, the Department of Education has encouraged reform efforts nationwide through the New American High Schools Initiative, which seeks to identify high schools that have dramatically improved the quality of education for all students. This year, education reform experts screened 39 applicants from more than 20 states.
The 13 schools honored for their innovative efforts were: Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, Calif.; MAST Academy in Miami; Niceville (Fla.) High School; Angola (Ind.) High School; Northeast Magnet High School in Wichita, Kan.; Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore; Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Md.; East Grand Rapids High School in Michigan; School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minn.; Brooklyn Technical High School in New York; Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Ore.; Fox Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh; and South Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, Texas.
—Erik W. Robelen & John Gehring
