Best Places to Work: Sustainability

Judy Brookhart was thrilled when the bees at Old Trail School were about to swarm last spring. The two bee colonies established there in March 2010 didn’t just survive the harsh winter; they were ready to send half of each colony out into the fields.

“Our two [colonies] were becoming four,” says Brookhart, assistant to the head for special projects.

Bee populations are threatened by a number of factors, Brookhart says. As the sole source for pollination of about one-quarter of plants, flowers and crops, the disappearance of bees is a threat to our food supply.

The school’s first-year harvest of 75 pounds of honey was a pleasant result of keeping bees on campus, but it wasn’t the motivation behind bringing them to the school. “Our purpose is much more sustainable — to help repopulate our little part of the world with bees,” she says.

The bees are one small part of a growing emphasis on environmental stewardship at the school, nestled cozily in the southwest corner of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Administrators want to make Old Trail a model of sustainability that will inspire Northeast Ohio. Their prototype includes plans for everything from food and water to recycling, operations and facilities. And teachers of every subject are finding new ways to involve students.

“Blending sustainability in our curriculum has been exciting and powerful,” says Jodi Johnson, co-chair of the science department and a primary division teacher.

Her elementary school students have been pulling invasive garlic mustard in the park for five years and are witnessing the return of native wildflowers as invasive species are eradicated. First- and fourth-graders planted and tied willow branches into a meandering leafy tunnel that has become a favorite playground. Preschoolers plant pumpkins and sunflowers from seeds. Fourth- and fifth-graders maintain a salsa garden of tomatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers and cilantro. Sixth-graders manage the composting process and pull out scraps from lunch each day for pigs at a neighboring farm. Seventh- and eighth-graders work as farmhands and help teach the younger children. This fall, the middle-school farmhands will have an opportunity to suit up, learn beekeeping skills and help to extract honey.

Old Trail’s chef uses produce grown on site along with other fresh, local foods in the school kitchen. Currently, the school’s garden includes six raised beds of vegetables, leafy greens and herbs. The school is looking for ways to create a full-fledged farm on as many as 11 available acres on campus.  

Head of school John Farber, who came to Old Trail 12 years ago, realized quickly that the school’s physical location was an asset.

At the same time, he was confronted with a major challenge: an aging wastewater treatment system that did not meet EPA standards. Farber embarked on a 4 1/2-year process to hook Old Trail’s system into the Akron city sewer system.

Trying to make that happen involved going through seven jurisdictions with multiple tap-in and usage fees. Ultimately, Farber and the board decided there might be a better long-term solution.

Farber’s alma mater in upstate New York had installed a natural Living Machine wastewater treatment system seven or eight years earlier, and he liked the idea. The local EPA, which had been working with Oberlin College on a similar system, became a supporter.                            

Today, Old Trail’s Living Machine can treat up to 5,000 gallons of wastewater daily without caustic chemicals. It also doubles as a Living Classroom, a greenhouse that provides a year-round environment for students to observe the process.

Wastewater flows back and forth, 17 times in a 36-hour period, through this engineered filtration system that mirrors the way water is cleaned in nature. Eventually, the swimmably clean water is released into a tributary of the Cuyahoga River.

“The design is simple. It’s kid friendly. It works,” Farber says. “It should be the pride of Bath.”