Hereford High School science teacher Carolyn Gonzales is new to the school, but as co-adviser of the environmental club, she?s jumped right in with students helping to raise environmental consciousness atthe Northern Baltimore County school.
“We have about 40 students in the club, and, yes, they really are enthusiastic,” Gonzales said. “They participate in the school?s recycling program, we?re doing landscaping around the school and are working with the Monkton Garden Club to build a Memorial Garden at the school for some students who have passed away recently.”
Hereford is one of 24 schools ? the most-ever in a single year ? that The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education named Wednesday to its Green School Awards Programs list. The schools were honored at a ceremony at Catonsville Community College.
Hereford High students also have done forest restoration projects, planted flowers in the Pretty Boy Reservoir, written letters to legislators regarding environmental issues and were scheduled Thursday to travel to Hereford Middle to help children there with their Bay Days Festival. It?s part of an effort that also helped Hereford High become one of The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education?s official “green” schools in 2003.
Other schools on the list in Baltimore County are Berkshire, Chadwick and Hillcrest elementary schools and Pine Grove and Dundalk middle schools. Dundalk High School, which has an extensive paper, bottle, metal, ink cartridge and cell phone recycling program, as well as a greenhouse and “green roof” program on campus, was also named a green school by the MAEOE for the first time.
