By Wendy Greenberg
All six schools in the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) district can be proud of their sustainability efforts, as they have met the requirements to earn Sustainable Jersey for Schools certification. Johnson Park and Riverside elementary schools earned Silver certification for the first time; and four schools — Community Park, Littlebrook, Princeton Middle School (PMS), and Princeton High School (PHS) — maintained their Bronze certification.
“These certifications represent an incredible amount of work from school staff, students, and parent-teacher organizations, all of whom coordinate their efforts through the leadership of Sustainable Princeton,” said PPS Superintendent Mike LaSusa in a press release from the district. He thanked Jenny Ludmer and “those working on behalf of the district” at Sustainable Princeton, where Ludmer is the program manager.
During the latest certification cycle, the district earned a record number of points for each school, with new points recognizing the use of two electric school buses, partnering with Fairgrown Farms to bring farmshares to Princeton, planting 90 trees across the district, and ensuring access to healthy water in schools.
Launched in 2014, Sustainable Jersey for Schools is a voluntary certification program that provides a framework for pre-kindergarten through 12-grade schools to build and sustain sustainability programs “through measurable, evidence-based actions.” Schools earn points by completing sustainability initiatives across a broad range of categories.
Certification is valid for three years. To view each school’s certification report, search districts and schools at sustainablejerseyschools.com.
PPS continued to receive points for enacting Sustainability and Safe Routes to School policies, attending professional development for sustainability, partnering with the Princeton Education Foundation, implementing Garden State on Your Plate, promoting locally grown food, partnering with Share My Meals to recover leftover food, diverting food scraps from the landfill, implementing building energy efficiency improvements, tracking energy use and carbon footprint, and using greener cleaning equipment and supplies.
Among the many projects noted were Johnson Park’s school garden and outdoor classroom; Riverside’s garden beds and grow boxes; Community Park’s winter clothing drive and book collection; Littlebrook’s Princeton and Hopewell Family Hikes and Halloween costume collections; PMS’ gardens and Souper Saturday program; and PHS’ recycled plexiglass lesson and community outreach activities.
A recent achievement in the district’s sustainability efforts is the rehabilitation of a line of grow beds outside PMS, thanks to a grant that allowed the school to upgrade its disintegrating grow beds. Over the years, the beds had begun to crumble, but new grow beds were completed this past summer, and have already yielded some produce.
“Our middle school grow beds were the most successful cucamelon growers this season,” said K-12 Science Supervisor Jacqueline Katz. “Many of the cucamelons have been shared with the cafeteria, along with tomatoes.” A cucamelon is a grape-sized fruit that tastes like a crisp, tangy cucumber.
At the end of last school year, said Katz, PPS used a Sustainable Jersey for Schools grant and PTO funding “to rebuild several of the grow beds that had fallen into disrepair. We were able to purchase cedar planks which are more weather-resistant than the previous material.”
As a result of the $2,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey in 2024, and more recently from the New Jersey Education Association, PMS classes could resume growing produce, stated a PPS press release.
The project was a collaborative one, involving high school students helping with the repairs and reframing the garden beds. “During the year, the beds are used to grow a wide range of produce that can be used in the cafeteria and in our kitchen science class,” said Katz. As soon as the fresh new cedar beds were ready, students were able to resume their educational work with a garden educator. The grant also allowed for the purchase of seeds for the garden, so students could start growing new produce for their own tasting and education, and also to offer to vulnerable community members.
There are bigger plans for the grow beds and the whole campus to table initiative. In the future, according to the district press release, the PMS PTO would like to work with the art teachers to paint the bed containers. PPS is also looking to incorporate more native plants into all school gardens to support local pollinators.
“We are also in the process of building a small greenhouse next to the grow beds,” said Katz. “This will allow us to pre-germinate seeds prior to planting them in the beds next spring.” PMS and PHS students will be involved in that project as well, she said.