Green & Healthy Schools Academy Celebrates 2014 Accomplishments

​The Green & Healthy Schools Academy (GHSA) helps schools become engaging, inspiring, and thriving places where students and staff can reach their full potential. Its work is critical to pursuing GBA’s vision that “everyone from every socioeconomic background is able to live, work, learn, and play in healthy and high-performing places.”

In 2014, GHSA added workshops and technical assistance to its program offerings – and graduated its inaugural School Sustainability Culture Program cohort, which was comprised of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Chartiers Valley School District, City of Erie School District, Environmental Charter School, Pittsburgh Langley K-8, Spectrum Charter School, and The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh.
Numbers are from 2014; 2015 promises even greater opportunities and impact.
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GHSA also welcomed a new cohort of the School Sustainability Culture Program, with continuing members Environmental Charter School and Pittsburgh Langley K-8. New schools include:

• Chatham University
• Community Day School
• Glen Montessori School
• Marshall County Schools (West Virginia)
• Winchester Thurston School

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Spotlight On: Pittsburgh  Langley K-8

Pittsburgh Langley K-8 joined GHSA’s School Sustainability Culture Program in 2012. Under the leadership of Dr. Rodney Necciai, school staff worked tirelessly to provide its Sheraden community with a safe, healthy, inspiring, and enriching place to learn and share. Maria Fabyonic, a Langley teacher and head of the school’s Green Team, advanced a few important initiatives over the last several years with the support and encouragement of GHSA. GBA is proud to report on some impressive projects that Langley’s Green Team accomplished, including the following:

• Built a vibrant vegetable garden in one of the school’s courtyards.
• Created extracurricular programs to teach students about food, cooking, and entrepreneurship.
• Coordinated a student-led recycling program that collects recyclables from classrooms and reminds students and staff about the importance of waste reduction.

“In the Green & Healthy Schools Academy, we talk a lot about helping people find their door to sustainability. My door has always been about giving our kids a safe place to go. Their key to get in is their desire and behind the door is their hope and future. Inside is a place of understanding where there is much peace, love, and security. We greatly appreciate the Green & Healthy Schools Academy’s support in developing and articulating our vision to sustainability. And we invite everyone to come experience Pittsburgh Langley, what we call the Castle on the Hill.”  – Maria Fabyonic

GHSA proudly supports Langley by helping it establish critical partnerships, providing ongoing technical assistance, and celebrating and publicizing its successes.

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