A recycling program at the Junior/Senior High School building is already in place.
“This wasn’t a grant we had applied for in the past. With this being our second year in the new building, we thought it would be a good time to get in the habit and get recycling going,” said A.J. Huff, Madison’s coordinator of school-community relations and grant writer.
The fifth-graders then set about gaining information to use as evidence for their grant proposal. Over one 10-day period, school janitors weighed the amount of trash that left the building. More than 6,500 pounds of trash was recorded.
According to Butler County Recycling District Coordinator Anne Fiehrer Flaig, Madison’s proposal presented a comprehensive approach to getting the elementary school’s recycling program started.
“With leadership from school Superintendent Tom York and the school board, to the implementation level with recycling activity to be managed by fifth-grade science/math teacher Michael Bos. He plans to enlist the entire fifth-grade team — teachers and students — to regularly collect recycled materials, and make recycling a project based learning opportunity.”
According to Fiehrer Flaig, Madison hopes to incorporate recycling into all academic subjects, science, math and language arts. The students will also be responsible for designing fliers, posters and developing infomercials on the school website, and charting progress on the total amount of material collected.
The school held a Recycle Grant Kickoff on Monday to announce the fifth-graders’ recycling effort.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.
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