While the curriculum committee members sat in on classes and spoke with administrators at Culver Academies, science teacher Stacey Summitt-Mann spent her time on campus exploring the land.
“I met with Chris Kline,” she said. “He’s Culver’s Director of Sustainability. He and I toured campus, and we talked about the development of their sustainability program.”
Culver sits on 1,700 acres, and its best-known feature is Lake Maxinkuckee. The campus has 230 buildings, but only a small portion of the land is used for built structures. The rest is natural landscape, which includes the lake and its three wetlands.
“It [the lake] gives Culver so much in terms of education, and they’re giving back to their community by taking care of the lake,” said Summitt-Mann. “They have three constructed wetlands at key points on their property, so if there were a spill or massive flooding, the water would stop before going into the lake.”
Kline’s job is to connect school programming with Culver’s natural resources. In three years, he has built a strong network of support to include students, faculty, and even an alumni advisory board. He has also instituted a campus recycling program and pushed for small changes to the food program that have big environmental impact, like eliminating trays and starting a compost program.
For Summitt-Mann, it was helpful to see a relatively new sustainability program, as Kline’s position has only existed for three years. She came back with ideas on where she wants to take University High School’s sustainability program next.
“I liked the idea of bringing in alumni,” Summitt-Mann said. “What’s happening for me now is that I’ve had two or three kids go into environmental science. If we can have our alumni come back and get involved with our sustainability program, we can also tell students about these opportunities.”
Much like Culver, University High School has a vast plot of land that is an incredible asset to our community. Summitt-Mann is excited about the possibilities for campus development and hopes she can guide the school in making sustainability-minded choices.
“We have a blank canvas,” said Summitt-Mann. “We know we still have more buildings to build. We know we still have more grounds to be worked with. And we know there are grounds that there aren’t any plans for. A lot of students are interested in sustainability, and keeping University High School on the forefront of what’s changing in society could be really important.”