The Ohio EPA presented Brown Elementary with the Encouraging Environmental Excellence in Education Leaf award. A big shout out to Mr. D’Andrea, Ms. Kirkland, and Green Team for all their hardwork making Brown more *green*.

To obtain a Leaf Class E4 award, schools must demonstrate activities in all 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), environmental education and stewardship must be interdisciplinary, there must be student-led environmental initiatives, and the community beyond the school should be encouraged to participate in environmental activities.

Because of events like our SWACO Field Trip, Clothing/Toy/Book Swap, our rain barrel project, our increased recycling initiatives (candy wrappers/Christmas lights/straws/milk cartons), our Rain Garden installation, our composting efforts, combined with changes made to school practices that were initiated by our students, we were able to earn the EPAs highest honor.