FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2024
Cabrillo Unified School District has been recognized with a Green Ribbon District Sustainability Award
On Friday, April 26, 2024, we celebrated the end of Earth Week with welcome news that Cabrillo Unified School District has been recognized by the US Department of Education with a Green Ribbon District Sustainability Award. This competitive distinction was provided to just ten school districts in the USA this year, and the award now recognizes the significant efforts CUSD students, staff, families, and Coastside community members have taken over time to help establish and then achieve transformative district sustainability and environmental literacy goals here. CUSD is honored and proud to receive this special recognition, and today, we acknowledge the work of many people over time that helped us be selected this year by the California Department of Education for this USDOE Green Ribbon District Sustainability Award.
The efforts leading to this recognition have been taken by many CUSD students, staff, families, and Coastside community members over time. Great thanks are given to CUSD‘s Environmental Sustainability Committee that was formed by the Governing Board to bring together Half Moon Bay High School students, teacher representatives from across the district, school administrators, district office leaders and support staff, Board members, and community partners. This group of people from across the Coastside helped CUSD establish and meet key goals that eventually led to our successful applications for California Green Ribbon recognition during these last two years. This team will guide ongoing efforts and improvement goals for the district’s sustainability ahead in years to come.
Special thanks must be given to key players in this work, including the teacher leaders who collaborated with longstanding community partners like The HEAL Project, Coastside Land Trust, and San Mateo County Office of Education to design powerful environmental learning opportunities for the students we serve. In recent years CUSD established an Environmental Literacy Scope and Sequence of Activities to help organize yearly environmental learning activities and nature-based field trips for all students throughout the grades. We want to acknowledge our community partners and CUSD educators who have helped make this possible. Whether it be the work of Sonia Myers at Cunha Intermediate School to envision and build the new Cunha Little Farm with students and district staff, the efforts of Joseph Centoni at HMBHS to orchestrate nature journaling and community greening projects over time with the Coastside Land Trust, the collaboration between CUSD and The HEAL Project’s Executive Director Amy Bono and her colleagues to deliver powerful early learning at every elementary school through school gardens, or the years of support we have received from San Mateo County Office of Education, we recognize that many individuals and organizations have come together over time to make these CDE and USDOE Green Ribbon District Sustainability Awards possible.
In 2022 CUSD applied for the first time using the California Green Ribbon application process, and the district received its first “silver level” Green Ribbon recognition in 2023. In recent years CUSD has used the California Green Ribbon application as a powerful goalsetting tool over time, and as a result the district has taken key actions to work toward achievements that have helped make CUSD a more sustainable organization. Staff then updated its California Green Ribbon application in 2023, and CUSD is now humbled to have been recognized by the California Department of Education for a new 2024 “gold level” Green Ribbon recognition and also by the US Department of Education after another California Green Ribbon application submission this year.
Whether it be the gardens we have built on every elementary campus, the “farm to desk“ work done in all our secondary schools, or the increased district investments we have made in solar power generation and other ways to help CUSD become more environmentally responsible, we are grateful for the work done by students, staff, district leaders, Governing Board, and community partners in recent years to set goals and achieve environmental literacy and district sustainability milestones that established us as one of just ten school districts receiving this national recognition this year. Today we want to take time to thank everyone in our schools and everyone on the Coastside who are working as a team to honor and respect the natural environment that means so much to us. Please join us in celebrating the work we have done to earn these well deserved national and state awards. While there is still much more to do ahead to reach our goal of a more environmentally responsible school district, these CDE and USDOE Green Ribbon District Sustainability awards now recognize the good work we have done and the meaningful goals we have established for the future.
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