Florida Green Ribbon Schools DISTRICT Application
Thank you for your interest in completing the Florida Department of Education application for nomination to U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS). In order to complete this application, you will need to collect data about your district's facility, health, physical education and safety policies; food service; and environmental and sustainability curriculum.
Through its District Sustainability Award, ED-GRS recognizes districts taking a comprehensive approach to greening. A comprehensive approach incorporates environmental learning with improving environmental and health impacts. Becoming a U.S. Department of Education District Sustainability Awardee is a two-step process. The first step is to complete and submit this form to be selected as a nominee by the Florida Department of Education. Once selected as a nominee, the second step of the process requires signatures for the Nomination Presentation Form that will be sent to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) along with your application.
ED selects honorees from those presented by eligible nominating authorities nationwide. Selection will be based on documentation of the applicant's high achievement in the three ED-GRS Pillars:
- Pillar I: Reduce environmental impact and costs
- Pillar II: Improve the health and wellness of students and staff
- Pillar III: Effective environmental and sustainability education, incorporating science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), civic skills and green career pathways
Districts demonstrating exemplary achievement in all three pillars will receive highest rankings. It is important to document concrete achievement. It will help you to assemble a team to complete the application. This team might include a facilities manager, physical education and health education director, food services director, curriculum director, staff wellness coordinator, student services director, finance department representatives, teachers and students. You should consult the Green Strides Resources page and Webinar Series at
http://www.ed.gov/green-strides for standards, programs and grants related to each pillar, element and question. This is an excellent clearinghouse of information for all districts, not just those that apply.
The questions in this application will help you demonstrate your high achievement in these pillars as well as provide space for you to include pertinent documentation. Applications are due by Friday, December 5, 2014.
Note that if selected for nomination to ED-GRS, the district superintendent must be prepared to certify that each of the statements below concerning the school district's eligibility and compliance with the following requirements is true.
- The district has been evaluated and selected from among districts within the Nominating Authority's jurisdiction, based on high achievement in the three ED-GRS Pillars: 1) reduced environmental impact and costs; 2) improved health and wellness; and 3) effective environmental and sustainability education.
- The district is providing the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a district-wide compliance review.
- OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the nominated school district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if OCR has accepted a corrective action plan to remedy the violation.
- The U.S. Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the school district has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the Constitution's equal protection clause.
- There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a U.S. Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school district in question; or if there are such findings, the state or school district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.
- The district meets all applicable federal, state, local and tribal health, environmental and safety requirements in law, regulations and policy and is willing to undergo EPA on-site verification.
It is recommended that you review the application preview prior to initiating your application. Once you start your application, you may save to continue later, but only the information entered on pages prior to the page where you stop will be saved.
