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WILLIAMSBURG

Isle of Wight County Schools was selected for a top award in the 2019 Virginia School Board Association’s Green Schools Challenge. This is a competition designed to encourage implementation of specific environmental policies and actions that reduce the carbon emissions of local school divisions and their broader communities. IWCS was the overall winner out of all school systems with student populations between 5,001 and 10,000.

The other category winners included King and Queen County Public Schools for student populations under 5,000, and Arlington County Public Schools for student populations 10,001 or greater.

“I am proud of the progress we have made to be energy efficient and ecologically friendly,” said IWCS Superintendent Dr. Jim Thornton. “We are appreciative the VSBA chose to recognize our efforts toward being good stewards of the environment.”

The award was presented at the 2019 VSBA annual convention in Williamsburg. On hand to accept the award for IWCS were school board members Jackie Carr, Kirstin Cook and Julia Perkins, along with Thornton and Windsor High School’s student liaison on the board, Leah Carroll.

Twenty-one school divisions were also recognized as being Certified Green School Divisions by implementing actions and adopting policies that earn the divisions “green points.”

According to Lynn Briggs, IWCS spokeswoman, IWCS has been recognized by the program every year since the VSBA’s Green Schools Challenge launched 11 years ago. This year’s competition was sponsored by Moseley Architects and ABM Education.