Sustainable Jersey Honors 2 Brick Schools For Green Efforts

BRICK, NJ — Two Brick Township schools have received recognition from Sustainable Jersey — one for efforts to conserve energy and the other for efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Brick Memorial High School has received a Sustainable Jersey for Schools Small Grant, while Lake Riviera Middle School had achieved bronze level certification for its schoolwide programs, Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said at the Brick Township Board of Education meeting.

Lake Riviera is one of just two schools in Ocean County to achieve bronze certification; 109 schools out of 516 participating in the program across the state have achieved bronze status, according to the Sustainable Jersey website.

Brick Memorial is one of 30 schools in the state to receive a grant; it is funded by the state Department of Health, according to a news release from the district.

This grant will be used to support a new program at Brick Memorial called BE FIT! It will "promote and encourage a fit and healthy environment for both students and staff, giving the school an opportunity to improve personal fitness and assist in offering additional fitness electives that utilize technology-based equipment," the district said.

In addition, this grant will also give faculty and staff an opportunity to use the equipment before and after school, the district said.

The coordinators of BE FIT, Brick Memorial Assistant Principal Daniel O’Cone and physical education teachers Tara Cooper and Keith Farr, initiated the grant application with the commitment of improving the
fitness and health of the building.

“The school has been placing an emphasis on fitness not just in physical education class, but throughout the school. With the Sustainable Jersey grant we can expand and continue to encourage lifelong fitness,” Brick Memorial Principal Richard Caldes said.

"Sustainable schools are healthy schools, and schools that promote health and well-being will see benefits," said Donna Drewes, who co-directs Sustainable Jersey with Randall Solomon. "These grants funded by the New Jersey Department of Health will support schools as they tackle important health and wellness actions."

The New Jersey Department of Health is funding the grants through its Maternal and Child Health Services Title V Block Grant. Technical assistance to grant recipients will be provided by three of the Department of Health's regional partners: AtlantiCare (south), EmPoWER Somerset (central) and The Center for Prevention and Counseling (north).

Bronze certification makes Lake Riviera eligible for future grants as the school works to implement programs that reinforce the sustainability message in school, with programs that encourage recycling, reduce waste and water usage and more.

"We should be proud of the efforts of both of these schools," Gialanella said at the board meeting. "They set an example for the rest of the district."

Board member John Barton, who sits on the district's Sustainable Jersey committee, echoed those sentiments and said he hopes to see the rest of the district's schools follow suit in atttaining bronze status.

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