Education, Sci-Tech

Team BCPS Clean Green 15 partnership awards $22,000 to BCPS schools for keeping schools and county clean and green

TOWSON, MD—With participation growing across the county, the annual Team BCPS Clean Green 15 Litter Challenge on June 7, 2023 honored the efforts of hundreds of Baltimore County students, schools, and community volunteers, whose combined anti-litter efforts helped to beautify and keep clean their schools and neighborhoods.

The annual Clean Green 15 competition challenges schools and volunteers to engage in quick, 15-minute local litter clean-up events. As a result of the program’s 422 cleanups since last spring, 30 BCPS schools earned grant awards of between $250 and $2,500 to support school-based environmental projects and STEM resources.

The cleanups, which were held throughout the year by 6,040 students, school staffs, volunteers, and community partners, collected 2,091 bags of litter and removed almost 15,000 pounds of bulk trash before it could wash into waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. Forty-four BCPS schools participated in this year’s challenge, and there were 829 more volunteers participating than last year, a 16 percent increase over 2021-2022.

“Congratulations to all those schools and school supporters in Baltimore County who understand that having a clean and healthy school and community environment is an important part of the educational experience and of being good, responsible citizens,” said BCPS Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams. “Through your participation in Clean Green 15, you demonstrate a commitment to creating a better environment not only for your schools but for your neighbors, your families, and for yourselves – a commitment that we hope each student will carry with him or her throughout their lives.”

At the June 7 celebration at Watershed Public Charter School in Windsor Mill, Debbie Phelps of the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools led county dignitaries and educators as they cheered administrators, teachers, and staff from the winning schools and helped to kick off a new year of Clean Green competition among county schools.

Watershed School was an appropriate venue for the awards ceremony; in April, the school was named a 2023 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School for its stewardship of the environment. The school’s curriculum puts environmental sustainability and the natural world front and center. Environmental concepts and the Maryland E-Literacy standards are infused throughout lessons and embedded in the curriculum, rather than being used as an enrichment activity.

The countywide Clean Green program – now starting its 10th year – is open to any group, including school-based groups, places of worship, youth groups, civic or community groups, scout troops, sport teams, businesses or other organizations, that wishes to help clean up their community. Groups are asked to report their clean-ups online and designate a school to receive credit toward the grant competition.

Team BCPS Clean Green 15 is a collaboration of the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, the Office of County Executive Johnny Olszewski, BCPS, and The Education Foundation of BCPS.

Team BCPS Clean Green 15 Litter Challenge

Winning Schools – School Year 2022 – 2023

 

Amount School
Grand Prize – Cleanup Results $2,500 Charlesmont Elementary School
Grand Prize – Volunteers $2,500 Bear Creek Elementary School
Special Schools $1,000 Battle Monument School
High School – 1st Prize $2,000 Franklin High School
High School – 2nd Prize $1,000 Western School of Technology
High School – 3rd Prize $500 George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology
Middle School – 1st Prize $2,000 Perry Hall Middle School
Middle School – 2nd Prize $1,000 Hereford Middle School
Middle School – 3rd Prize $500 General John Strickler Middle School
Elementary School – 1st Prize $2,000 Pinewood Elementary School
Elementary School – 2nd Prize $1,000 Seven Oaks Elementary School
Elementary School – 3rd Prize $500 Logan Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Berkshire Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Catonsville Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Church Lane Elementary Technology School
Honorable Mention $250 Colgate Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Dulaney High School
Honorable Mention $250 Dundalk Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Grange Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Hebbville Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Hillcrest Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Holabird Middle School
Honorable Mention $250 Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts
Honorable Mention $250 Reisterstown Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Rossville Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Sandy Plains Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Sparrows Point High School
Honorable Mention $250 Watershed Public Charter School
Honorable Mention $250 Woodholme Elementary School
Honorable Mention $250 Woodlawn Middle School

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