Spotlight: Carl Hayden

This week Ben Warner introduces us to the efforts at Carl Hayden!

Q – Can you introduce us to the Carl Hayden team?
A – Sure. Currently the team is small. Colin Haverkamp (a biology teacher) and myself, Ben Warner (Carl Hayden’s Sustainable Schools Fellow), are the two individuals leading the sustainability initiative here. A handful of other teachers are interested so they have been working with us to develop curriculum and sustainability projects. We are working to expand our core team to 5 members by next semester!

Q – This is your school’s second year as part of the Sustainable Schools project, right? What happened last year?
A – GK-12 had a presents at Carl Hayden beginning in the Spring of 2011. A school garden was the first project proposed by the sustainability team at that time. Since then, we have brought the garden project to fruition.

Q – I’m sure you all are just beginning to build steam, can you tell us what’s coming up?
A – We have an exciting sustainability initiative planned for the year. We are attempting to enhance Phoenix Union School District students’ understanding of the importance of safeguarding our natural resources. Our goals are to enable students to understand that (1) our environment acts as a life support system that can be utilized to improve quality of life, but (2) the environment is finite and over exploitation can lead to its degradation. We are planning a series of field trips, coupled with the development of a campus-wide permiculture and campus outreach program designed to allow students to understand ecosystem services.