ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The U.S. Department of Education has announced that Polk Middle School is a “Green Ribbon School.” The award highlights efforts to go green.
“It’s just definitely a super exciting day,” Polk Middle School Principal Ben Bustos told KRQE. “It has been a work in progress since 2019 . . . it’s been quite a journey.”
Last year, Polk Middle School was on the verge of being consolidated as part of a district-wide effort to “right-size.” Several other schools were also on the consolidation list.
“I told my staff, ‘You know, we love this school, we love our community, we love our students, and that we were going to do everything within our power to do such a great job that we would be taken off that list’,” Bustos said.
Now, Polk Middle Schools is thriving in terms of its unique, environmentally friendly classroom focus. That includes using a school farm to help teach students about science, a composting program, and involvement in recycling. And there’s even more on the horizon.
“We’re in the process of setting up an aquaponics system and hoping to create a partnership with Santa Fe Community College, because they have one of the foremost programs in kind of this area,” Bustos said. “We want to see if they’ll donate or sell some of their tilapia because they’re harvesting it, so we can use that as the fish in our aquaponics system.”
Bustos says they will also work on making their school facilities, which he says date to the 1960s, more efficient. And a federal grant will help create a composting curriculum in partnership with the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District.
“We’ve just tried to be as strategic as possible,” Bustos said.
The Cuba Independent School District in New Mexico also won a Green Ribbon award. The district “serves a student population of rural and Indigenous communities and is deeply committed to fostering a sustainable and healthy environment for students and staff while delivering effective social emotional, environmental, and sustainability education,” the U.S. Department of Education says.
