MPCSD selected as 2026 California Green Ribbon School (CA-GRS) District Sustainability Honoree

Editor’s note: This information came from the MPCSD newsletter.

The Menlo Park City School District has been selected as a 2026 California Green Ribbon School (CA-GRS) District Sustainability Honoree by the California Department of Education. This award recognizes the district’s achievement across three pillars: Reduced Environmental Impact and Costs including energy, water and grounds, waste, and alternative transportation; Improving the Health and Wellness of Students and Staff including environmental health, nutrition, and fitness; and Effective Environmental and Sustainability Education including interdisciplinary learning, STEM content, knowledge, and skills, and civic knowledge and skills.

Earning this recognition fulfills a goal outlined in the district’s 2024-30 Strategic Directions, under direction #3, Create Inspiring Environments. The milestone was to become a California Green Ribbon School District by the year 2030; hitting it four years early gives the district encouragement to continue improving its sustainability outcomes. Measure U, which the community approved in 2024, embeds many sustainability features in its plans as well.

Preparing the CA-GRS application was a districtwide effort, leaning heavily on the departments of Maintenance, Operations, and Transportation and Student Services, and site leaders, to help gather evidence. Highlights of MPCSD’s sustainability practices include maintaining school gardens, comprehensive nursing and counseling services, community vaccination clinics, using green cleaning products and safer pesticides, Merv-13 and HEPA filtration, dedicated spaces for outdoor play and learning, robust non-car commute encouragement along with bicycle and pedestrian safety education, project-based learning topics like plastics in the ocean, pollinators, and waste management, family science events and school assemblies like Bio Dome, and science curriculum that embeds California’s environmental principles and concepts.

The 2026 California Green Ribbon Schools Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 9, 2026, in San Diego. While MPCSD does not plan to attend the ceremony, it will recognize this achievement at the April 16 board meeting.

Top photo shows ELC students enjoying an outdoor learning space and second photo shows a teacher working with students at school garden bed.