PS41 Commitment
PS41 is committed to continuing our progress in making PS41 an environmentally focused school for the benefit of our children, staff, community and the earth. Thanks to the commitment of Principal Kelly Shannon and our teachers, students are learning environmental awareness and responsibility at a very young age. Our goal is that the various experiences that students will have in our garden program, related theme studies, science classes and our future GELL laboratory will give them tools that they will need to solve environmental issues that they will certainly face in the future. This will insure that our children will understand the importance of doing their part to be a responsible citizen for the better of their community and our planet.
School Wide Recycling Program
Thanks to the financial support of our PTA and the efforts of our maintenance department, staff and students, in the Fall of 2007 we initiated a successful school wide recycling program. Students have been separating their lunch trash into clearly marked bins in the cafeteria at every meal. And classroom bring used materials to designated recycling areas. Parents can assist in this effort by packing their children’s lunch with recyclable materials, by using food containers and thermoses instead of plastic bags and juice boxes. Starting this Fall, the PTA School Store is offering PS41 pocket tote bags and reusable water bottles for sale. By purchasing these or similar products, you help reduce the tremendous amount of plastic that ends up in landfills or waterways and takes centuries to decompose.
Currently, the DOE has no centralized recycling program and leaves it up to individual schools to purchase recycling bins and implement them. Fortunately for our school this was not an issue, however, for many schools funding is not readily available. We need to press the DOE to make this issue a priority if they really care about our children as they say they do.
Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Products
The PTA is purchasing in bulk environmentally friendly and biodegradable cleaning products for each classroom. Please consider this when buying additional supplies for your teacher.
Useful Links and Resources
National Gardening Association
www.catalogchoice.org to stop catalogs from clogging your mailbox (and save paper)
www.cenyc.org (NY council on the environment)