Milwaukee – Browning School, 5440 N. 64th St., is one of only 26 schools in the nation to be named a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School, chosen for its commitment to sustainable environmental practices.
“The Browning School community has mobilized to bring underutilized spaces to life, brought in supportive partners with programming and resources, and built capacity for new systems and practices to live out a green dream,” the Department of Education notes in its highlights of the 2023 honorees. (See: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools/awards.html )
Some of Browning’s practices that earned the award:
- Participation in the Walking School Bus program in which students walk together to school with adult volunteers to practice pedestrian safety and promote healthy habits. The program also improved morale and attendance.
- Revitalizing the school greenhouse and cultivating partners to teach students and staff how to sustain programming, provide access to wholesome food, and offer hands-on STEM learning. Students have learned about aquaponics, composting, solar dehydration of food, urban agriculture, nutrition, and food justice. The greenhouse became accessible to the wider community as well and became a means of ecotherapy and a path to wellness, particularly after the remote learning of the pandemic.
- Installation of water bottle refilling stations along with a stormwater vault under the playground to prevent runoff. The vault holds up to 872,000 gallons of stormwater.
- Composting of landscape and garden waste.
- Landscaping with native plants.
The Education Department, which announced the award April 20, in time for Earth Day on April 22, bases the honor on three factors:
- Reduced environmental impact and utility costs
- Efforts to improve health and wellness
- Effective education about environmental sustainability
Browning School is one of 16 schools that are members of the Milwaukee Community Schools Partnership, which brings together Milwaukee Public Schools, United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. Together, these organizations are driven to transform schools into places where students, families, staff, and the community are working together to help every student succeed. These schools offer an array of resources to ensure that each student has what they need to grow into a healthy, confident scholar: academic supports, social and emotional learning, health and wellness, family and community engagement, and a safe and supportive climate.
The Department of Education will hold a recognition ceremony celebrating Browning and the other winning schools and districts on Aug. 8 in Washington, D.C. The complete list of winners, which includes four other schools, a university, and a school district from Wisconsin, plus an official with the University of Wisconsin System who won the Department of Education’s Director’s Award, can be found at https://www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools/highlights-2023.pdf
In 2022, the Department of Education awarded MPS schools A.E. Burdick and Golda Meir the Green Ribbon designation.
Browning has 259 students from 4-year-old kindergarten to grade 5.
Please note that the award is the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools award; it is different from the Green Ribbon Schools program run by another organization.
