Sunset Primary School

The community that has been built at Sunset Primary School has worked hard to follow our district’s mission to “educate the whole child.” One way we do this is to teach respect and caring for our environment. Sunset is proud to say that we were the first school in our district to become a premiere Green School. Sunset Primary School involves staff, students and the community in our conservation program in many ways, such as hands-on lessons in our school garden. Each year, it is a group effort to plant and harvest our garden. During the spring months, classes will go out and harvest the fruits and vegetables to make healthy snacks. Our school website: www.sunps.wlwv.k12.or.us is a link to learn more about our garden and its importance in our community.

We are fortunate to have a partnership with Creative Information Transformation Education (CITE), Clackamas Country Recycling Partnership, Metro and Tualatin Valley Basin Partners for Clean Water. We invite these groups in throughout the year to present workshops and assemblies for our students, educating them on the necessity to care for the earth and minimize their “carbon footprint”. A partnership with a local private school allows opportunities for our students to teach other students how to be more resourceful.

Sunset has worked hard to incorporate sustainable practices into our daily schedule. Some of the things that we’ve done to incorporate sustainability in our school are:

• Going to paperless newsletters
• Establishing a bus “no-idling” policy
• Encouraging walkers, bike-riders and use of school bus
• Creating a webpage with information on recycling and sustainability
• Recycling printer cartridges, cell phones, crayons
• Holding “re-use our supplies” collection at the end of the year
• Holding annual food and waste audits to educate students and staff
• Installing sensor lights in our library, to conserve energy
• Buying reusable cloth bags to transport items around school
• Using electronic listserve along with or instead of paper notices
• Using green cleaning products
• Using durable lunch trays
• Participating in Metro’s annual Billboard Contest
• Installing motion detectors on some lights

Many teachers rely on a website or blog, rather than paper, to keep families notified of important events, assignments, etc. Our annual book exchange allows students and staff to bring in books to swap with others - a great way to reuse! Food waste is composted in worm bins, and then used in our gardens. Assisting nearby schools and a senior center helps us to share what we have learned.