SMMUSD Wins Environmental Scholarship

MALIBU, CA — The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is one of five school districts in the nation to receive a sustainability scholarship. SMMUSD was awarded the School District Scholarship from the Center for Green Schools and the U.S. Green Building Council, the district announced last week.

The scholarship will give the district's sustainability staff advanced sustainability education and improve the health and performance of district schools for all students and staff. The other four winning districts were in Davenport, Iowa; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Boston, Massachusetts; and Seattle, Washington.

"SMMUSD representatives, including Sustainability Coordinator Caroline Coster, will begin the scholarship year by attending the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Atlanta for focused learning," the district said. "As the year goes on, SMMUSD will have access to the nation’s leading green-schools experts. Previous winners have said the scholarship’s biggest benefits are the ability to share best practices with other districts and learn how they are solving common issues."

Sustainability is a major long-term goal of the Board of Education, which adopted a 20-year sustainability plan earlier this year that outlines targets and paths to achieve them across all district operations, the district.

The Center for Green Schools, which has awarded 26 scholarships since 2014, cites multiple studies that have shown that improving specific aspects of the student environment — such as daylight, air quality and noise levels — can lead to better information retention, concentration, task speed and more.