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Lothrop Magnet School Becomes a Green School

By Cheril Lee

Omaha, NE – Lothrop Magnet Center in Omaha is being recognized with a Green Schools certification.

Green Schools work to infuse sustainable education into the curriculum and green operations in to educational facilities. Pamela Galus, Science Specialist for Lothrop Magnet, says the building is fairly old so they want to make it more energy efficient. She says in so doing, they want to reduce costs and the amount of resources used. Additionally, Galus says everyone wants to recycle what they can, "so our 3rd and 4th graders wrote a grant and got laptop computers, so that we could move toward paperless classrooms. We do pen pal relationships with schools all over the world and we can e-mail our letters to them now. Every classroom from the principal's office to the early childhood has a paper recycling box and all the students participate."

Galus says future plans include an electronics recycling program, where the school will get paid for electronics they recycle. The money raised will fund cleanup for the recycling program. Students will also connect with other schools and serve as mentors to those that are beginning their own recycling program.