Healthy Schools Campaign

Our Blog Feed Is Now Up and Running!

To our loyal blog followers: When we announced our move to HSC's new site on Monday, we recognize that some of you may have tried to subscribe to our new RSS feed unsuccessfully. We are sorry for any inconvenience, and we encourage you to subscribe to our new feed now that it's up and running.

We look forward to continuing to keep you posted on important HSC efforts via our blog, now designed to connect with you even better!

Please contact [email protected] with any questions about this process.

 

We've Moved! Visit HSC's Blog at a New Address

HSC is excited to announce the launch of our brand-new website.

As we strive towards making schools healthier places to learn and work, the new website will help us communicate effectively with supporters like you. 

Our blog's new address: http://www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/blog/

Visit blog categories that include: 

• Fitness & Physical Activity
• Recipes & Healthy Snacks
• Education Policy
• Green Cleaning

... and many more!

Please change your bookmarks and RSS reader settings. 

We're thrilled to serve you better than ever with our new site and our new blog. 

See you there!

 

 

Ecolabels Reflect Growing Green Cleaning Movement

By Mark Bishop

Ecolabels are extremely important because they empower companies and consumers alike to choose more sustainable, environmentally responsible products. Over the past 20 years, the use of ecolabels has skyrocketed, with companies transforming their chemical offerings to more sustainable and healthier options - and the acceptance of ecolabels has been a major player in driving this change.

While I find the proliferation of this phenomenon interesting, it can also be vexing to some. As this article from Chemical & Engineering News explains, green ecolabels are so commonplace that the variety of standards out there can be confusing: a product that meets the standards of one may fall short of another, or how do we even know if an ecolabel is credible. From HSC’s perspective, we want purchasing decisions to be not only the healthy choice, but the easy choice. For that reason, we limit the primary ecolabels that we consider to three broadly accepted standards: Green Seal, US EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) and UL Environment's EcoLogo. We commend them for their work on setting a high bar for cleaning chemicals.

Schools and commercial cleaners understand the value of these ecolabels when making purchasing choices. Despite some lingering perception that remains among schools and facilities directors that environmentally sound cleaning products are more costly and not as effective, many are already using green cleaning products and using ecolabels as determinants of what to buy. In fact, I’ve worked with schools that were resistant to purchasing green chemicals only to open up their janitorial closets to see exclusively Green Seal-certified products. Green cleaning is everywhere and, at times, it happens right under our noses! (Literally. Isn’t it nice knowing something can clean safely and powerfully without that overly chemical or floral smell?)

Since we launched the Quick and Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools in 2006, we have seen tremendous strides in the marketplace, and it has been exciting to watch this broad acceptance happen. Nearly every major cleaning manufacturer and supply company now has a set of “green” products.

But how can we improve upon ecolabels and the standards they enumerate?

When the majority of companies are meeting the standards set by the likes of Green Seal and EcoLogo, the standards that were high five years ago have now become the norm. This is good news for the future of green cleaning, but that also means there is always room for improvement. And while standards are updated periodically, is there a way to use the marketplace to continue to improve the quality and sustainable capabilities of green-certified cleaning products beyond ecolabels?

To think about this, let’s consider how labels have affected other consumer behavior: when we go out grocery shopping and try to make healthy choices with the food we buy, we often turn to the nutritional labels to determine the nutritional value and make informed choices. If we want lower fat or sugar content, we can look at the label. Current ecolabels are limited to pass/fail of an entire set of criteria. However, what I’d want to see is the equivalent health and environmental information as we have for fat, sugar, calories and vitamin C. I would want to compare products certified by ULE and compare, for example, how much does a product off-gas VOCs, and how quickly the products break down in the indoor environment.

A system that included this type of information would augment ecolabels and empower an informed consumer. As nutritional labels are supplemented by supermarket resource guides and apps like Fooducate, a similar system could be in place to inform commercial and retail consumers about cleaning products. That’s why I am particularly looking forward to the future of two resources on green cleaning -- ISSA’s cleaning product registry Transpare for commercial products, and GoodGuide for retail products -- and seeing their role in empowering sustainable choices.

Ecolabels have contributed to some incredible strides for the green cleaning movement but there is always room to improve upon past successes. Programs that put more factual information in the hands of purchasers can help drive change in purchasing decisions. We look forward to a bright future for green cleaning and seeing where the bar will be raised next. At Healthy Schools Campaign, we want to not only empower informed, healthy decisions, but also make the healthy choice the easy choice.

How to Start a School Garden: Fit to Learn Helps Teachers Plant Seeds for the Future

By giving children the opportunity to garden and experience outdoor learning, schools can boost physical activity, mental health and academic performance. Plus school gardens forge important links to surrounding communities while teaching life and career skills.

Last week, teachers from all over the city who are part of HSC’s Fit to Learn program focused on the hows and whys of starting school gardens during a fun and informative session at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Many local teachers shared the great results from their own school garden projects. Cecilia Ludvik, a physical education teacher and basketball coach at Dawes Elementary School on the far Southwest Side, said their garden wraps around the building and offers educational opportunities for all grade levels. The garden features custom-made raised beds so that students who use wheelchairs could garden alongside other classmates. Another teacher connected the school's  gardens with healthy fundraisers. There, the garden grows pumpkins, squash and other autumnal vegetables, which are then sold as part of a harvest festival fundraiser -- a unique answer to the healthy fundraising guidelines in the Chicago Public Schools’ new wellness policy.

The core activity of the evening involved teachers breaking into groups and mapping out all the components needed to start a school garden. 

Erin McMillan, from the nonprofit Seven Generations Ahead, provided her expertise and gave three key steps for educators interested in bringing garden projects to their schools:

1. Start talking to people about interest. Gather a thoughtful, committed team who will be in it for the long haul. Ask about each other’s interests and skills to determine the most effective roles for each person.
2. Create goals and a timeline. There’s a lot to be done even before the first seed is planted. Establish smaller, gradual goals to more effectively and efficiently manage the tasks ahead.
3. Find financial support. McMillan noted that Chicago is home to a number of organizations and local and community resources who are interested in promoting school gardens and could potentially assist with funding, as well as local, state and national grants. For a list of upcoming grants and opportunities, you can visit our website or subscribe to the Fit to Learn newsletter.

Team members from Seven Generations Ahead also noted that even schools in areas with contaminated soil, tight spaces, or predominantly indoor space have the capacity to create even a small garden. They suggested repurposing paint buckets, pickle jars, or other containers for raised or indoor gardens, as well as plants that would weather in them more effectively. They also suggested composting as an easy way to manage organic waste and get started, and seeking out local agricultural or horticultural resources for labor. 

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Starting a school garden takes a lot of work, but as our Fit to Learn team learned, it sows the seeds for healthy students, a healthy school, a healthy community and a bright future. Thanks to all participants for making this an incredible day!

More Than Just a Meal: Principals’ Breakfast Has Been A Catalyst For Change

By Guillermo Gomez

On Thursday morning, more than 150 parents and principals will come together for our 7th annual Principals’ Breakfast for Healthy Schools. At the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen, they will sit down over a wonderful healthy breakfast, but the morning meal is hardly the only point. Since its inception, the Principals’ Breakfast has provided an important avenue for dialogue, networking, synergy for changing policies, a way to celebrate the accomplishments of parents and principals working together, from bringing recess back to elementary schools to providing a shining national example of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign with Go for the Gold, and a way to create a road map to an even brighter future.

Early on in our development of Parents United for Healthy Schools, we were making connections that would help implement new policies. At the time, however, there were no forums for parents and principals to exchange ideas and information. We all felt as though creating dialogue with principals would be an effective way to figure out how new models and policies were going to work.

Connecting Parents & Principals

We held the first Principals’ Breakfast in 2007, as Chicago Public Schools were rolling out new wellness policies. There was no real mechanism for making an announcement and informing parents about what these policies were, why they were important and what role they could play in implementation. We used the morning as an opportunity to introduce mechanisms for the new policy and discuss nutrition. Ever since, parents have had a major role in exchanging ideas with principals, holding schools accountable and leading the way in making sure wellness policies are implemented.

The following year, attendees of the Principals’ Breakfast championed breakfast in another venue: classrooms. From the models presented and perspective of parents, principals saw the importance of Breakfast in the Classroom and went back to their schools with the pilot program model developed by Parents United and Chicago Public Schools. By the following Principals’ Breakfast, 200 schools had Breakfast in the Classroom. The event has also helped lay the groundwork for bringing back recess to all CPS elementary schools, creating healthier school lunch menus and developing a groundswell for people to embrace wellness teams and positive changes.

Going for the Gold

One of our proudest accomplishments to date kicked off at the 2010 Breakfast, where we announced the Go for the Gold initiative in partnership with the HealthierUS Schools Challenge. We committed 25 schools to apply. Go for the Gold is the Chicago-based incarnation of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign. Go for the Gold has been a stellar example of what the national campaign can do locally, on the ground, and provides a model to the nation. Now, more than 71 schools have completed Go for the Gold and been awarded by the HealthierUS Schools Challenge, and 60 more are applying.

The Breakfast has also served as a forum for principals and parents to network with one another. Principals provide models for how these changes have worked in their schools, not only just for other principals, but for the parents. Parents can take these models back to their school administrators and apply them to their school communities. It’s a way of saying, “If this school is doing it, we can do it too.”

Sparking Dialogue for Change

Even more voices have come into the space of the Breakfast. We’ve had state and local politicians, officials, administrators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Chicago Public Schools administrators present, to name a few, but the most fundamental piece is still the catalyst conversations from our parents and principals and the actions they take together.

Every year, the enthusiasm and drive for change that surrounds the Principals’ Breakfast grows ever larger. This small but committed group has grown to more than 200 people, and between 50 and 60 principals, all of them committed to healthier schools, healthier students and a meaningful exchange of ideas that will start them on that path. Chicago is ready for change, and we hope the Principals’ Breakfast sparks even more important reforms for our schools, communities and our children in the years to come.

“We don’t do breakdown maintenance with humans:” IAQ Experts Hosting EPA Webinar February 26

We all know the adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, and in the case of air quality in schools, it may be even more than that. Dave Blake and Rich Prill, two Indoor Environmental Quality experts based in the Pacific Northwest, focus on ensuring schools have the tools they need to put that idea into action by ensuring that schools are safe and sustainable, with air free of contaminants and irritants.

Students miss about 12.8 million school days annually because of asthma and asthma-related issues, adding another layer of importance to the already vital need for clean air and proper ventilation in schools.

Blake, of the Northwest Clean Air Agency over in Mt. Vernon, Wash., and Prill, a Building Science and IEQ Specialist based in Spokane, Wash., will be leading an “Indoor Air Quality Walkthrough” Webinar on February 26 at 1:30 p.m. EST, part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Tools for Schools” educational webinar series. Prill and Blake have visited more than 1,000 schools, investigating indoor environmental issues, doing workshops and skill training and have presented their walkthrough at the EPA’s Tools for Schools symposium.

“Kids are required to go to school for the most part, but schools aren’t required to do much in terms of the indoor environment,” Prill says of the importance of this work. “There’s not much in the way of school-appropriate standards or guidelines. Schools aren’t industrial workplaces.”

On a typical day, the team will take their instruments, including CO2 particle counters, light meters, moisture meters and temperature meters, and will tour a school and monitor air quality. What gets monitored gets controlled, and they loan equipment to schools for further monitoring if need be with the intent that schools will eventually get their own. When monitoring, they look to make sure a school meets standards in these five areas:

1. Dry
2. Clean
3. Comfortable
4. Pollutants are controlled (chemicals are stored, exhaust fans are working, locker rooms are ventilated, science and art activities are properly monitored, etc.)
5. Proper ventilation

Staff training comprises a major part of Blake and Prill’s program. “We don’t want people to think the worst,” he says. “We want to let them know we’re there for education and skills training and to talk about the building inside and out.”

He says he does not want staff members at a school to feel as though the program is designed to tell people how they fall short or to regulate them. Commending staff members on positive practices and reinforcing pride in their work is an important element, as is providing a wealth of resources to share with the staff. Transparency is important, too -- measurements are shared at the end of the day so that everyone is on the same page.

Prill says the program has been successful so far. The majority of schools they visit end up adopting some kind of indoor environmental program instead of just operating the school on breakdown maintenance, or only dealing with equipment when there is a serious issue. With the focus on education and tight budgets, facility maintenance can get put on the backburner, and with limited resources, facilities are often only dealt with when something goes wrong.

“We don’t do breakdown maintenance with humans,” he says. “You don’t want to wait for people to have problems, so you do prevention.”

He attributes the success of the program to helping teachers, school administrators and facilities teams understand their buildings, adopt some prevention policies and guidelines, and guide on-site assessment.

Prill says he recommends the webinar to anyone working or regularly in contact with a school, including parents, teachers, administrators, facility managers, building operators and head custodians.

“Everybody needs to be on board,” Prill says. “We see teachers bringing in chemicals, air fresheners, furry animals in the rooms, teachers that turn off the ventilation system.  We need everyone in a school community to be on board, especially with understanding asthma and sensitivities.”

He says it’s important for everyone to know the parameters and standards for good air quality in a school to protect student health and to be aware when something is not right, so it can be fixed right away. A united front and awareness are the keys to prevention, which not only has health and environmental advantages, but will also financially benefit tight school budgets in the long run, as fixing equipment or major ventilation problems will prove more costly in the end.

Learn more and register for this informative and practical webinar.

For those who cannot attend the webinar, Prill and Blake have put together a DVD with more tools and walkthroughs for schools to use.

Healthy Snacks Go Hollywood With Our Oscar Party Menu

by Lindsay Eanet

Sunday night, millions of people all around the world will tune in for the film world’s biggest night, the Academy Awards, and more than a few will host a viewing party. We decided to put a healthy twist on this festive Oscar ritual with some delicious and nutritious recipes (plus a few puns -- we couldn't resist!).
 

Spinach and Argo-choke Dip

There are plenty of great Spinach and Artichoke Dip recipes out there. It’s one of our favorite go-to party foods, a rich, creamy dip full of flavor but also full of veggies, and, when made with key substitutions, a lighter alternative to ranch or Bleu cheese dips. This recipe from Serious Eats is one of our favorites. You could give it an extra protein punch by using Greek yogurt instead of light cream cheese, too. Serve with various veggies (carrots and bell peppers make great companions) or baked whole wheat tortilla chips, a perfect accompaniment to Ben Affleck’s surprise Best Picture favorite.  

You’ll Need:

• 10-ounce bag fresh spinach
• 6 ounces (3/4 block) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
• 6 ounces (3/4 block) fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella, shredded
• 1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed (not minced)
• 6 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese, divided

How to Make It:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

1. Tear spinach into bite-size pieces, removing any thick stems. Rinse in a colander, leaving a little water on the leaves. In a large nonstick skillet or Dutch oven, sauté the spinach over medium heat until wilted. Drain in the colander, pushing a little of the extra water out.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheeses with a potato masher. Add sour cream and mash more. Add spinach, mozzarella, artichokes, pepper, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of the parmesan. Stir everything until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan on top. Bake 30 minutes, or until parmesan is melted dip is all bubbly. Remove from oven and give it a minute or two to cool down.

Beets of the Southern Wild

This pun on Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild was almost too obvious, but that doesn’t make this beet and goat cheese salad recipe from AllRecipes any less delicious.

You’ll Need:

• 4 medium beets - scrubbed, trimmed and cut in half
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 (10 ounce) package mixed baby salad greens
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces of goat cheese

How to Make It:

1. Place beets into a saucepan, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender. Drain and cool, then cut in to cubes.
2. While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a skillet over medium-low heat. Heat until warm and starting to toast, then stir in the maple syrup. Cook and stir until evenly coated, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make the dressing.
4. Place a large helping of baby greens onto each of four salad plates, divide candied walnuts equally and sprinkle over the greens. Place equal amounts of beets over the greens, and top with dabs of goat cheese. Drizzle each plate with some of the dressing.

Alternate: If you’re looking for something a bit more snackable, try these super-easy-to-make beet chips. Just slice 2 beets to 1/16 inch thick with a mandoline, toss with a little olive oil and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. A delicious alternative to potato chips! 

Come to Me, Courgette, The Light Is Fading (inspired by Les Miserables)

Did you know that in France (as well as the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe), zucchini are known as “courgettes?” Well, they are. And “courgette” sounds an awful lot like “Cosette,” one of the main characters of the Oscar-nominated all-star movie musical. And zucchini is a great party vegetable, not to mention full of vitamins. For an easy and delicious snack, follow this great recipe from the "Go Ask Mom" columnist at WRAL:

You’ll Need:

• 1 zucchini, sliced in large rounds at an angle

• 1/4 cup milk

• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

• 2 tablespoons plain bread crumbs

• 2 generous tablespoons grated cheese

• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper

• Cayenne powder or crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

How To Make It:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Pour the milk in one small bowl.

3. Add bread crumbs, cheese, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in another bowl.

4. Dip the zucchini rounds in the milk, then dip into the crumb mixture.

5. Press down to make sure the crumbs stick to the zucchini.

6. Place on a wire rack coated with cooking spray on top of a cookie sheet.

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Alternate: Les Miserables Fruit Tricolor: Les Miserables provides you with a ton of options to play off of, but the tricolor of the French flag will make for a simple, bold and delicious statement. Consider making individual mini-crumbles for your guests with a graham cracker base, low-fat or vanilla Greek yogurt, and stripes of raspberries or strawberries and blueberries along the sides to echo the colors.

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Have a great evening, with a healthy menu taking center stage! 

 

Chicago Principals Share Strategies to Model Healthy, Active Behavior in Schools

HSC's Fit to Learn sessions, which demonstrate how learning can be part of the everyday classroom routine, are usually lots of fun. But our recent session was really electric.

In the auditorium at William Ray Elementary School in Chicago, students jumped and cheered -- a teacher used a big monitor to let kids choose songs from a popular dance video game. Next, everyone joined in the high-energy, on-screen choreography. 

The morning fun extended beyond the students, too -- because of Fit to Learn, the group included Healthy Schools Campaign staffers and a dozen principals and faculty members from around Chicago, picking up new strategies about educating a generation of healthier students. The dancing game was just one example of Ray Elementary’s Morning Fitness activities, which take place at the beginning of every school day for 25 minutes, motivating students and getting them active. Other activities include basketball, fitness stations and classroom yoga. 

Ray Elementary Principal and Fit to Learn advisory committee member Tatia Beckwith is one of a number of educators from across the city of Chicago who have become part of Fit to Learn, our professional development program for teachers and principals to learn more about ways to incorporate more physical activity and messages about healthy eating throughout the school day. In the advisory committee, local principals provide assistance with the vision, direction and launch of Fit to Learn, providing strategic advice, and helping recruit and mentor other principals.

Jenni Rice, a Physical Education teacher at Christopher Elementary School, attended the event as her school’s Wellness Champion to develop new strategies to bolster her school’s new nutrition and wellness initiative. “Our students do not get enough physical activity throughout their day, and considering the population of our students, both regular education and special education, we felt it could benefit them in increasing their achievement,” she says. 

After Morning Fitness, local innovators and experts presented new strategies. Then Carla Tantillo of Mindful Practices, a facilitator of our teacher program, led a fun yoga activity. Allison Slade, founder of Namaste Charter School, shared her philosophy and strategies as well. Learn more about her take on a healthy, fun-filled school day here. 

Participating teachers and principals not only gained new insights from the day’s discussions and presentations, but the event also served as a motivator to continue with current efforts or expand upon them.

“The more energy you burn off, the more you’ll be able to sit and focus,” says Gerardo Trujillo, principal at Pasteur Elementary School.  (Learn more about yoga for classrooms here.)

Gerardo Trujillo said one of his key takeaways from the day’s events was to work to ensure that he and his teachers led the charge to set an example for students. “You have to practice what you preach,” Trujillo says. 

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Our next Fit to Learn Professional Development event, Healthy Habits for Lifelong Learning, will take place Thursday, March 21, at a Chicago Public School to be confirmed in the coming weeks. If you are interested or would like more information, contact Rosa Ramirez at [email protected].

More Than 100 Parents Join Together to Make New Strides that Improve Student Wellness

At HSC, we’re thrilled to see parents joining together to improve the health and wellness of their school communities. Earlier this month, Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos para Escuelas Saludables brought more than 100 parents from across the city to the National Museum of Mexican Art. Many attending parents have already organized school wellness teams, others attended for the first time after seeing the positive effects of parents coming together and engaging with their schools.

Over a healthy breakfast (prepared by parent member and chef Hilda Cazares), we made some new strides:

• PUHS leaders presented members with key information about new wellness policies in Chicago schools, among them the new Snack and Beverage Policy.
• Healthy Schools Campaign Vice President of Urban Affairs Guillermo Gomez encouraged parents to take leadership at their schools by bringing together principals, wellness team champions and other parents to ensure that these new wellness policies are implemented successfully.
• We empowered  parents to be reinforcers of new wellness policies, including advocacy for healthy school fundraisers, quality recess and physical activity programs, and healthier school meals.

We were excited to see all participants, including local school council member Jose Hernandez, a parent who previously served on a Chicago Public Schools recess task force; Raquel Reyes, a local school council member from Daley Academy; and wellness team member and Liliana Hernandez, a local school council member at Eli Whitney Elementary and wellness team parent leader.

We at Healthy Schools Campaign look forward to the great things that parent leaders will accomplish in 2013!

Learn more: Read our recap of the tremendous progress that Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos para Escuelas Saludables made in 2012.

At Portland Public Schools, Green Cleaning is a Team Effort

Going green is nothing new to Portland Public Schools (PPS). The custodial team has been using green cleaning supplies for more than a decade after making the switch in 2001, but the district, which serves more than 47,000 students, continues to make impressive strides. With the introduction of new materials, an adopted Process Cleaning program and most of all, a staff that works as a team and cleans for health rather than for shine, we were thrilled to announce PPS as the Silver winners of the 2012 Green Cleaning Award.

Every year, the Green Cleaning Award winners demonstrate best practices around green cleaning, galvanizing their school communities around the idea that all students, faculty and staff deserve a healthy place to learn and work. The annual award, presented by American School & University magazine, Healthy Schools Campaign and the Green Cleaning Network, recognizes schools with excellent and innovative programs on cleaning for health without harming the environment. Winners are judged based on the five simple steps to green cleaning outlined in HSC's Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools.

Portland had many challenges to face at the start of the year, as many districts do in these trying economic times. According to Director of Facilities Operations Thomas Adams, the district had to cut the number of custodial staff in half, meaning more work and more space to cover in less time. Adams and his team made cleaning for health their priority, and adopted the trademarked, standardized Process Cleaning for Healthy Schools method to increase productivity without compromising cleanliness or student health. They have incorporated certain items into the process, including a spray-and-wash vacuum cleaner for bathrooms, and microfiber, which Adams says has been a much better fit for a common task like window-cleaning than the traditional rag-and-water job.

But it’s more than about the process. It’s about the people. Adams said a cornerstone of his green cleaning program is the training and team building, and in particular cultivating the mindset of his custodial staff. Custodians are often the most underappreciated employees of a school system, and Adams has empowered his team to recognize and see the value in their work. And for good reason: as the people in charge of cleaning, they play an essential role in a healthy and successful school environment. He said employees see themselves as part of a team who care deeply about what they do. Cleaning the school is not merely seen as sanitation duty, but as customer service. And that attitude and sense of validation and commitment leads to better results, a healthier, greener school and a stronger team.

And for the team, the commitment to a healthy school doesn’t end with the clean-up. Adams said he and his staff are planning on rolling out an initiative to encourage more diligent handwashing throughout Portland Public Schools, including signs in the bathrooms and coordinating efforts with teachers and school nurses. 

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We at HSC congratulate Portland Public Schools on the well-deserved recognition of its achievements! Learn more about green cleaning with our Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools.