MAPLEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL'S NEW AIR QUALITY WARNING SYSTEM, ECO GRANT

From Maplewood Middle School:

Dear MMS Families:

I am happy to announce that Maplewood Middle School was awarded a $2,000 Sustainable Jersey Small Grant funded by the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)! Sustainable Jersey for school advances and supports sustainable practices in schools and prepares the next generation of children to address sustainability issues. The MMS PBIS/School Culture committee will be utilizing the grant funds to build relationships with our neediest students through a mentoring initiative. Please congratulate MMS Team Leader and Special Education teacher, Ms. Ryann Varney, and Assistant Principal, Mr. Marc Gold, for leading this effort. Our next step is to apply for a $10,000 grant this spring to build a community garden.

Starting today, MMS will be flying EPA Air Flags on school grounds. The Air Quality Flag Program alerts our community of the local outside air quality forecast and helps our community take actions to protect people’s health, including those with asthma. Here’s how it works: Each day our school raises a flag to correspond to how clean or polluted the air is. The color of the Flag matches EPA’s outside Air Quality Index (AQI): green, yellow, orange, red, and purple. For more information, click on the link: http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=flag_program.index or contact Mr. Marc Gold.