Richard Montgomery High School Afie Mirshah-Nayar Assistant Principal, Assistant Principal

The following PowerPoint shows how the staff at Richard Montgomery High School has worked to help reduce our carbon footprint and make RMHS a more GREEN school.

Earth Hour Earth Hour was advertised on the PTSA Listserv and school private folder. Announcements were also made for students. Students had the opportunity to pledge their support of Earth Hour by signing a banner posted on Main Street.

Help from SERT Staff If they’re circled they’ve been in our building lots and lots of times!

We have school spirit

Recycling Schedule Students pick up recycling from one floor each day. Extra bins are put out on Main Street for recycling during lunch by building services daily in order to encourage the recycling of cans/bottles.

Energy Shut Down Last year we were shutting down for all long weekends with the help of students who walk around after school, remind teachers, and support them by closing their blinds. Starting this year we’ve been doing a shut down every Friday.

Environmental Clean Up Students have adopted the paths and park around our school. About every two weeks students cleaned up trash and recyclables.

Staff Involvement Sample showing how staff involvement (and support from the SERT team) is encouraged. From:Kirchman, Hillary H Sent:Friday, February 12, :14 PM To:Mirshah-Nayar, Afie A; Ruppel, Barbara M.; Williams, Gregory Subject:RE: Long weekend Afie, It depends on the time of day. Opening the blinds to utilize natural light during the day (also allows for solar heat gain) in the classrooms. In the evening (at the end of each academic day) the blinds should be closed as they serve as a thermal layer (another barrier) from the cold. When schools are closed over the weekend and in this case for a week we recommend that the blinds be closed. There is far more loss of heat when there is no one in the building and it’s night time. When the sun comes up and the building isn’t being used we are not heating to 68 degrees – we are in set back mode. Thanks for asking! We are very impressed with your school’s activity level. Stay warm and safe. Thank you, Hillary K. Kirchman _____________________________________________ From: Mirshah-Nayar, Afie A Sent: Friday, February 05, :54 AM To: Kirchman, Hillary H; Ruppel, Barbara M.; Williams, Gregory Subject: FW: Long weekend Hillary, Greg, and Barbara, Several teachers have asked the same question. Is there any info you can provide on the energy savings of having the blinds closed (insulating factor?) v. having them open to allow sunlight to warm the building. Thanks - Afie _____________________________________________ Sent: Friday, February 05, :41 AM To: Mirshah-Nayar, Afie A Subject: Question about the blinds Hi Afie, This occurred to me over the last weekend, and maybe it doesn't make sense, but shouldn't be leave our blinds open over a long weekend? In the winter, wouldn't this allow us to capitalize on solar energy and therefore less heating would be needed in the building? I might look into this on my own, because I'm kind of curious now….

Feedback to Staff Providing staff with feedback and data on our SERT Plan.

Communication with Families Updates going to all RM families via the Principal’s Update Newsletter Notice the used tennis shoe collection that was done by one of our students.

RMBC Videos Student produced videos in support of the environmental efforts at RMHS (please see videos and attached text) Earth Hour Environmental Club Hall Clean Up New Trash Video Final Trash Video SGA Trash Trash

Paperless Referrals via MyMCPS The school adopted a paperless system for sending referrals to administration – by using MyMCPS for referrals the schools saves approximately 10 sheets of paper per day. Over the course of the school year that is approximately 1800 sheets of paper.

Blue = Recycling Please make sure that the blue bins in your room are only used for paper recycling. Thank you!

Please… - Lights Off -Blinds Closed -Printers Off -Computers Shut Down -Appliances Unplugged Have a great weekend! Go GREEN!

Please note… Some lights on Main Street will be off from 7:30-10:30 a.m. daily in order to conserve energy and take advantage of the natural light coming from our sky lights! Thank you for supporting our environmental efforts! Go GREEN!