Ellis students given green light to make over their Denver school

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Christopher Acosta, 11, left, with help from Mohamed ElHabrush, measures an area where a garden will be planted at Ellis Elementary School in Denver. Ellis was one of three schools in the United States selected by the Earth Day Network for a "green makeover."

Ask any kid for a wish list and you expect video games or Barbie accessories, right?

Not so for the 565 kids who attend Ellis Elementary School in southeast Denver, whose collective wish list includes a "green" or living roof for the school, water- and air-quality testing kits, solar panels, native Colorado plants, a worm bin and a bike rack.

Really?

Ellis is one of three U.S. schools selected for a "green makeover" as part of an effort by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network to make school buildings more energy efficient and to teach kids about environmental issues. The other winning schools are in Chicago and New York City.

Earth Day Network spokeswoman Amelia Kissick said Ellis was chosen from a list submitted by Denver Public Schools officials who identified it "as one of the most underfunded and underserved."

In conversations with local environmental groups, "I heard Ellis Elementary listed over and over," Kissick said. "It also has an active community and active staff that really would be supportive of a green school."

Principal Khoa Nguyen says students came up with a wish list for making the school more energy efficient when they learned they had won the makeover, then passed it on to him.

"They tell me what to do," Nguyen says with a deadly serious expression, before he bursts into his characteristic wide grin.

The school, at 1651 S. Dahlia St., sits in the middle of a neighborhood where apartment buildings draw large immigrant communities. When the bell rings every morning, Nguyen and his staff welcome students speaking more than 20 languages, including those from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Turkey, Russia, Burma, Thailand, Mongolia, Vietnam, Croatia and Ukraine.

More than two-thirds of Ellis students speak English as a second language and 85 percent qualify for a free or reduced-rate school lunch.

Letting his students devise their own wish list fits closely with Nguyen's core philosophy of teaching, which is that life is one long lesson and all things are related. So when kids said they wanted the water from classroom sinks to taste better, they put water-quality testing kits on the list, Nguyen explained.

The school has been fitted with energy-saving lighting. In addition, an outdoor classroom will be built and incorporate solar panels connected to a computer where students can monitor electricity generated.

When the school's roof is replaced in the next couple of years, the makeover award will pay to build a "living" roof heavily landscaped with native plants, which will help insulate the building and improve air and water quality.

Other makeover items: birdhouses, bird feeders, a new appliance for the school kitchen, a professional energy audit and a supply of environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Earth Day Network, along with local nonprofits that support Ellis, will underwrite the costs and help teachers develop lessons that incorporate the changes.

And that bike rack on the list.

That's so the 95 Ellis kindergartners will have a place to park the new bikes they will be given later this spring thanks to the generosity of Wish for Wheels, a Denver nonprofit that gives away bikes to 300 kids every year.

Earth Day Fair

* When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 22

* Where: Greek Amphitheater at Civic Center

* What: The fair will include information on energy and water conservation, recycling, composting, pollution prevention, transit options, renewable energy and natural resources.

* Also on April 22: Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York St., hosts Earth-friendly activities and demonstrations for free. For more information, visit botanicgardens.org.