By Barbara S. Rothschild • Courier-Post Staff • November 22, 2009

CHERRY HILL — Cherry Hill High School East is going green by participating in a program that can earn $5,000 to fund an ambitious environmental project.

East biology teachers Joanne Long and Erica DeMichele applied for a grant from RecycleBank’s Green Schools program and were awarded the maximum amount toward refurbishing the school’s greenhouse and science wing courtyard, both in disrepair.

The project, which will cost about $6,000 in all, includes the creation of an organic garden in the courtyard where students will grow food to donate to a local food bank. The renovated greenhouse will be the site of experimental design projects that will use different methods of growing to promote sustainability.

Long and DeMichele said they were inspired after participating in a two-day Princeton conference sponsored by the New York-based Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, which works with teachers to prepare youth for an environment-embracing mind shift.

The Cherry Hill East teachers were energized by The Cloud Institute’s mission — to develop in young people and their teachers new knowledge and new ways of thinking to achieve economic prosperity and regenerate ecosystem health.

They applied for the grant from RecycleBank, a national pro-environment recycling organization whose year-old Green Schools program piggy-backs on its main activity — awarding its recycling members points per pound of materials they recycle.

Cherry Hill nonprofit groups are eligible for the grants because the township participates in RecycleBank. The school district also became a participant earlier this year.

Grants could range from $500 to $5,000. But groups don’t receive the money in a lump sum. They earn it by getting community members to donate recycling points to them.

Cherry Hill East has until Jan. 10 to raise awareness and get folks to donate their points through an online site. Every 100 points donated earns $10 for the school, so it needs 50,000 points.

Cherry Hill East environmental studies teacher Gina Oh will work with her students to develop environmentally friendly, paper-free, electronic ways of promoting the project and getting residents to donate points. They plan to create a Facebook page, advertise on the local cable channel dedicated to district news, and perhaps also use Twitter and e-mail to get the message out.

The project will also play a key role in a hoped-for change in the high school biology curriculum, Long said.

“We are looking at introducing a new ninth-grade curriculum in environmental science and could bring in an Advanced Placement course in environmental science, too,” she said.

Marsha Pecker, Cherry Hill East’s assistant principal for biology, said those two courses for ninth-graders and upperclassmen would replace the current environmental studies course for upperclassmen only.

Like the environmental studies course, the proposed courses will include a community service requirement in keeping with the watchdog aspect of environmentalism.

Students already collect potato peels, egg shells, coffee grinds and grass clipping for composting and also practice conservation by collecting water in rain barrels.

District schools that received Green Schools grants last year were Cherry Hill High School West to grow vegetation on baseball dugout roofs and Bret Harte Elementary School for an outdoor classroom and sustainable garden.

In addition, Carusi Middle School also has a composting project.