24th Annual Cans4Books Drive
The results are in for the 24th annual Cans4Books Recycling Rrive. Thank you to all of the students, staff, friends and neighbors that participated!
We added up your school and public donations and they totaled $1,032.50. Our amazing recycling partner, Green Quest Recycling, donated an additional $500 in funding and prizes for 1st and 2nd place! SouthPointe Barnes & Noble rounded everyone’s gift cards up to the next $5 increment and covered the 3rd place prize.
All together, the Cans4Books drive generated $1,615 for school libraries. We are so grateful for our community partners that make this program possible every year! We are excited for more books to be on school library bookshelves thanks to school communities recycling over 47,000 cans!
Congratulations to our top schools (pounds recycled per student) and prize winners:
First Place – Saratoga Elementary
472 pounds of cans recycled $425 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
Includes additional $75 prize
2nd Place – Huntington Elementary
208 pounds of cans recycled, $215 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
Includes additional $50 prize
3rd Place – Clinton Elementary
179 pounds of cans recycled, $170 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
Includes additional $25 prize
Other participating schools who will also be receiving gift cards include: Beattie, Everett, Maxey, Saratoga, and Sheridan elementaries, and Park Middle School.
The Cans4Books program has reached over $49,000 donated to school libraries for the purchase of books since 2001. Over 98,500 pounds of aluminum cans have been recycled over the lifetime of the program.
Thank you to our contributing sponsors: Green Quest Recycling and SouthPointe Barnes & Noble Bookstore!
2024-25 Green Schools Recognition Program Results
The Green Schools Recognition Program just wrapped up its ninth year! Through this program, schools choose and complete a variety of earth-friendly activities throughout the school year. These activities earn the school points towards Green, Greener and Greenest levels of achievement, plus corresponding funding rewards for future sustainability projects.
23 schools submitted their activities from 2024-25, with over 300 activities reported across the district! LPS staff, students, families and community partners spent time in gardens, read from the Climate Action Bookshelf, celebrated Earth Day and more! All of these activities empower students to understand their role in environmental stewardship as they work together to take action.
Congratulations to this year's funding award winners!
Green:
- East High School:
Earned 95 points, receives $50 - Southeast High School:
Earned 95 points, receives $50 - Southwest High School:
Earned 75 points, receives $50
Greener:
- Beattie Elementary:
Earned 175 points, receives $100 - Lincoln High School:
Earned 160 points, receives $100 - Lux Middle School:
Earned 135 points, receives $100
Greenest:
- Eastridge Elementary:
Earned 280 points, receives $200 - Kloefkorn Elementary:
Earned 240 points, receives $200 - Norwood Park Elementary:
Earned 215 points, receives $200 - Sheridan Elementary:
Earned 215 points, receives $200
Top Elementary & Secondary:
- Holmes Elementary:
Earned 650 points, receives $500 as top earning elementary school - Mickle Middle:
Earned 225 points, receives $500 as top earning secondary school
2024-25 Points Totals
A huge thank you to all the schools who participated this school year, and congratulations to our funding award recipients! We can’t wait to see what you have in store for 2025-26!
Safety and Sustainability at Elliott Elementary Bike to School Day
Keeping students on the right path was a key goal of Elliott Elementary School’s Bike to School Day event on May 16th. The event, coordinated by Safe Kids Lincoln-Lancaster County (SKLLC), focused on encouraging students in grades K-5 to practice safer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly transportation on their paths to and from school.
SKLLC, as part of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, has coordinated Bike to School events almost every year for the last 20 years, including an event at Clinton Elementary School last year. These local celebrations also align with national events led by the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
Supported by Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU) and Black Hills Energy, Elliott Elementary staff and volunteers set up activity stations around the school encouraging students to practice safety in four key areas while walking and biking:
-
Trail Etiquette & Physical Activity
Billy Wolff Trail crosses right by Elliott Elementary, meaning many of the students use and cross the trail. This station encouraged students to be physically active and use the trail, but to do so safely. Students learned the importance of staying on the right side of the trail, communicating, and watching for passing cyclists. Bike traffic on the trail during the activity provided real-world experience with proper trail crossing, helping the students and even some of the teachers!
-
Large Profile Vehicle Safety
Black Hills Energy brought a large truck to demonstrate the importance of safe behavior around large vehicles with limited visibility. Each student sat inside the truck to experience how difficult it can be to see around the outside of the vehicle. Putting students in the driver’s seat, even for a moment, helped them understand the need for caution around vehicles of this size.
-
Brain Injury Prevention
This station focused on bike safety and the importance of wearing a helmet. Volunteer and Public Health Educator Brian Baker demonstrated each step to make sure a helmet is fitted and placed properly for protection. Baker also showed the students a brain model to demonstrate the need for protective headwear.
“It's important for students to be able to safely navigate around the neighborhood, to and from school, to and from the park.”
Rachel Redepenning, the Active Living and Nutrition Program Coordinator for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, shared how the trail etiquette and physical activity will help students stay safe on trails in the future.
“This is a great opportunity for us to be able to give the kids some hands-on experience,” Redepenning said. “[Things like] staying on the right hand side of the path and learning those safety messages and rules of the road for when they are out and about on their bikes, on their scooters or skateboards, or just walking and biking around the neighborhood.”
Guiding students through crosswalk safety, Melissa Ramos-Lammli, an LTU Senior Traffic Technician, taught students the importance of being safe while crossing the street, a habit she said she hopes will stick with them.
“This is something that they’re going to take with them for the rest of their lives, and even as they grow up and become drivers themselves,” Ramos-Lammli said. “I’m hoping, even by bringing this education and reminders to the students that they’ll take it home and share it with their families, so that everybody’s a little more safe.”
Elliott Elementary School and LPS are so excited about the opportunity to continue the tradition of Bike to School Day in Lincoln and hope to continue it for many years to come, and are thankful for the support of Safe Kids Lincoln-Lancaster County (SKLLC) at the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU) and Black Hills Energy.
Scrap Metal Drive Raises $920
We’ve tallied up all the donations from the Lincoln community, and the 2024-25 LPS Scrap Metal Drive raised $923!
Our recycling partners, Alter Metal Recycling and Sadoff Iron and Metal Recycling Company, accept a wide variety of metal items for recycling and track donations throughout the school year.
When members of the community recycled scrap metal at either of these locations, they could then donate all or part of the proceeds to the LPS Recycling Program. All told, the Lincoln community donated the recycling revenue from over 10,300 pounds of metal this school year!
These funds are used to replace aging or damaged recycling containers. These steel containers will themselves be recycled as scrap metal and replaced by containers also made from recycled steel.
This continuous cycle from scrap into new, useful steel products is known as a closed loop. In a closed loop, both waste and resource depletion are kept to a minimum!
The LPS Recycling Program provides recycling education and opportunities in all LPS classrooms, offices and support buildings. In 2024, we reused, recycled, and composted over 3.8 million pounds of material, diverting 56% of our waste from the landfill.
Thank you to Alter Metal Recycling and Sadoff Iron and Metal Company for their continued partnership with this program. And thank you to all of our wonderful community members for their donations!
Earth Month 2025 Recap
Earth Month 2025 at LPS might have been our best yet! Students at every grade level engaged with green topics thanks to support from staff, families and neighbors in their school communities. We’ve pulled together some Earth Month 2025 highlights from around the district.
April 16: Local Food Showcase
Northeast High School played host to a Local Food Showcase to highlight what family and consumer sciences students have learned about buying, preparing and growing local food. Community partners supporting the district’s Nourishing Northeast Lincoln grant project also shared resources and how they have been involved with school garden upgrades and hands-on learning experiences.
April 19: Lincoln Earth Day
The Sustainability Team joined dozens of other environmentally-minded organizations at Innovation Campus for Lincoln Earth Day. Attendees of all ages learned about the steps LPS takes every day to promote and support sustainability districtwide! The day included live music, a clothing swap and, thanks to Lincoln Community Learning Centers, Lincoln Earth Day’s first-ever Bike Rodeo!
April 21: S.O.S. Summit
High school students from around the district gathered at Standing Bear High School for the third annual Students of Sustainability Summit just before Earth Day. The event featured a tour of the sustainable design features on the school’s campus, including solar panels and a rooftop garden. Guest speakers from the City of Lincoln, UNL, and Omaha Students for Sustainability shared the many ways students can serve as leaders in sustainability before they even graduate!
April 22: Earth Day
LPS Sustainability published the 2024 Annual Sustainability Report on Earth Day 2025 and shared some of the report’s highlights at the Tuesday evening school board meeting. The district has made significant strides in areas like energy efficiency, waste diversion and sustainable transportation in recent years, and Earth Day provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate these 2024 wins!
April 23: Green Team Environmental Quality Investigation
Students in Lux Middle School’s Green Team club explored real-world applications of math and science concepts for Earth Month. LPS Environmental Department staff joined BVH Architecture to teach students about how air, water, lighting and sound all play a role in environmental quality indoors and out. Green Team members used handheld meters to take air quality measurements before creating graphs and discussing their findings as a group.
April 25: Arbor Day
LPS students planted 54 trees between two sites this Arbor Day! Fourth and fifth graders at Robinson Elementary School worked alongside volunteers from across Lincoln to plant trees in nearby Waterford Park, and members of Lincoln Northeast High School’s Key Club carried out the first of two plantings planned on school grounds. Both groups are working to become the latest LPS schools to earn Tree Campus K-12 Certification through the Arbor Day Foundation.
Various Dates: Even more celebrations!
Other Earth Month activities included:
- Landscaping work, crafts and a color run at Kloefkorn Elementary School
- Earth Day poster creation at Beattie Elementary School
- A courtyard reopening celebration at Maxey Elementary School
- A staff clothing swap and outdoor classroom cleanup event at Sheridan Elementary School
- Marigold planting at Norwood Park Elementary School
- Seed starting at Schoo Middle School
No matter how they celebrated, everyone who participated in an activity this April was part of something incredible here at LPS!
Sustainability Spotlight: Clio Baird at Southeast High School
Our last Sustainability Spotlight of the school year is shining on Clio Baird, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School!
Clio serves as the Vice President for the school’s Key Club and has most recently led an effort to plant trees on Southeast’s grounds.
On April 25, Key Club members and a few additional student volunteers planted four trees at Southeast High School. The Arbor Day planting is the first of two Clio has planned, and the club will add four more trees next year. By spacing out the plantings, Southeast’s Tree Team will be able to ensure the first four trees’ success and involve more Southeast students over time.
Key Club members focus heavily on service and leadership, and Clio decided that working toward Tree Campus K-12 recognition was a great way to meet these goals during her time at Southeast.
Clio said that club members were immediately onboard with the idea, and that the planting day was the culmination of effort spread out throughout the school year.
“We had to do a lot of fundraising work and put in a lot of effort outside of our officer meetings to make this planting possible, and I am so proud of our efforts,” she said.
The club’s fundraising efforts secured the money to purchase each of the trees, with members reaching out to local businesses and communicating their plans to the school community on social media. One of their business donors, Runza, even sent Runza Rex out to Southeast to deliver a check and pick up a shovel!
Clio worked with LPS Grounds staff and building administrators to ensure the new trees were the right species and planted in the right place. Assistant Grounds Superintendent Troy Gold helped Clio and the Tree Team with site planning and transporting the trees before giving a planting demonstration to the day’s student volunteers.
Southeast High School Principal Tanner Penrod said the school will benefit from these student efforts for years to come, and the dedication Clio and Key Club members demonstrated made the project an easy “yes” for school administrators.
“The best part about this process is that it’s been 100% student-driven,” Penrod said. “It’s really been a cool opportunity for us to watch some student-driven leadership and see them give back to our school and back to our community.”
After the initial demonstration, students worked in teams to plant each of the four trees in holes prepared by the Grounds team. With the trees in the ground and given their first watering in their new home, the students admired their work and reflected on the progress they had made.
"I'm glad that I was involved in this. I feel like even more a part of the school.”
Clio said that the additions of serviceberry, pine, and lilac trees to Southeast’s campus were a win for the club, the community and the environment.
“Every tree planted at LSE reduces our carbon footprint, and any positive impact made on the environment is worth celebrating,” she said. “I feel extremely proud to have had a part of this project!”
Robinson Elementary School Students Plant 50 Trees in Waterford Park
Lincoln’s Waterford Park is now 50 trees greener thanks to students at nearby Robinson Elementary School. Fourth and fifth grade classes planted the trees alongside community volunteers to commemorate Arbor Day 2025.
Working in two shifts, the planting teams watched a demonstration from Parks and Recreation staff before donning work gloves donated by the Arbor Day Foundation and dispersing throughout the park.
Students and volunteers worked to loosen each tree’s root ball, set it at the proper depth and cover the roots with soil.
Planting volunteers included Ameritas employees, students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources, the Arbor Day Foundation, and Northeast High School – LPS’s first school to earn Tree Campus K-12 recognition!
With the final touches of mulch and a popsicle stick nametag in place, students learned more about future plans for the park and had an opportunity to ask questions about the trees they had just planted. One of the highlights for many Robinson students was seeing a rendering of the playground equipment that will eventually be installed, encircled by the many trees they put in the ground.
Miss Nebraska 2024 Raechel Warren joined Ameritas volunteers to distribute free trees to Robinson families throughout the afternoon. 110 trees headed to homes around the school on top of the 50 that students planted!
Ahead of the April 25th celebration, students prepared with tree-themed activities in the classroom. These lessons tied into existing curriculum standards in both science and social studies.
Fourth grade students learned about the holiday’s Nebraska origins and the benefits trees provide from Arbor Day Foundation representatives.
Fifth graders worked alongside Kaylyn Comstock of Lincoln Parks and Recreation and UNL Regional and Community Forestry Lecturer Ann Powers in their Park Masters board game, strategically placing trees in different hypothetical park layouts.
LPS couldn’t be more grateful for the many community partners who made Arbor Day 2025 so memorable! The Robinson community will benefit from this project for many years to come, as will the students who had the chance to take part in a hands-on experience rooted in teamwork and caring for the world around us.
Sustainability Spotlight: Lucinda Zmarzly & Lincoln High School Gardeners
April’s Sustainability Spotlight is shining on Lucinda Zmarzly and student gardeners from Lincoln High School!
Zmarzly, with support from student volunteers and community members, stepped up as the unofficial caretaker of Elliott Elementary school’s garden in 2023. After the garden’s former caretaker moved on from Elliott, the gap in knowledge and attention allowed weeds to spring up throughout the space.
Zmarzly and LHS senior, Alykx Wojcik, led the charge to remove the overgrowth and establish new plantings that would help keep new weeds at bay.
Zmarzly and Wojcik enlisted the help of family and friends, as well as garden volunteers from Sheridan Elementary in their summer 2023 cleanup efforts.
“We’re kind of the caregivers until the next big garden advocate at Elliott comes along and wants to take charge of it.”
With the weeds out of the way, Zmarzly’s attention turned to the future. She and other volunteers planted low maintenance, pollinator-friendly plants including buffalo grass, larkspur, sunflowers and zinnias. These plantings served to both beautify the space and to preserve the gardeners’ weed removal efforts.
“The first year, it was mainly about what cover crops we can put in so it’s not as much of a mess in the spring,” Zmarzly said. “It only takes a season for a garden to get completely overgrown.”
Spring of 2024 arrived and Zmarzly began working with Elliott’s Community Learning Center to bring parents and other community members back into the space.
Seven families participating in the Family Literacy Program signed on to begin growing food in the garden’s raised beds. Each family received coaching on where resources like the watering keys were located, and then had free rein to grow anything they liked.
Wojcik said that part of his role that summer included filling in to water, weed, and harvest the family-led raised beds if their usual caretaker was unable to do so.
While continuing to support the space, he said that he was able to see Family Literacy Program gardeners and their children enjoying the garden, as well as CLC groups and Elliott students at outdoor recess.
“It’s really nice to see someone look at a flower and go “Oh my gosh, that’s so pretty!” and then run and tell their friends to come see,” he said.
While cleaning up the space was the initial priority, Zmarzly said she also advocates for flexibility within gardens. In not meticulously planning every square inch, future gardeners will have the freedom to make the space their own. The work of Elliott’s former gardeners hasn’t been lost, either.
“Whoever started the garden at Elliott planted some really nice things, like raspberries and prairie plants,” she said. “More and more of these plants come to light every season as we keep the space weeded.”
It has been so exciting to see gardeners from Lincoln High School step up to support a nearby garden in need! We are grateful for the incredible example of dedication, energy and community-building that has grown out of this garden revitalization project.
Sustainability Spotlight: Standout Custodians
This month’s Sustainability Spotlight is shining on three exceptional LPS custodial staff members!
They and their teams are integral to managing waste programs and supporting sustainability efforts across the district, and these custodians have really gone above and beyond this school year.
Brendan Patchen at Eastridge Elementary School
Brandan Patchen serves as the Assistant Custodial Supervisor at Eastridge Elementary School, where he has worked for four years. Patchen has been with the district for seven years and started coordinating Green Schools Recognition Program activities with this school year.
Eastridge has already earned an impressive 275 points by reading books from the Climate Action Bookshelf, engaging with energy lessons from LES and collecting over 400 items for donation to the People’s City Mission! Patchen has worked to involve students at every grade level, as well as building staff and the school community.
“I am so proud of how Eastridge’s staff and students have responded to our efforts,” Patchen said. “I couldn’t do this without the wonderful staff at Eastridge who have taken time out of their busy schedules to work with me on new ideas to help our school’s efforts in sustainability.”
Leslie Stroup at Moore Middle School
Leslie Stroup serves as Moore Middle School’s Assistant Custodial Supervisor, where she has worked for the last two years. Stroup has been with LPS for seven years in total, and was part of the team that opened the building in 2017. She has been instrumental in the success of the recycling and composting programs at Moore.
Stroup ensures that each student who comes through the lunchroom waste station feels confident sorting their waste and welcome in the building overall. She and the rest of the custodial team manage waste collection throughout the building, including in the school kitchen. As a distribution location for school lunches, the kitchen generates much more waste than the average middle school as Nutrition Services Staff prepares food for multiple other schools.
“I think Moore just has something special going on here,” she said. “Zappa, our principal, is top notch and supports everything we do, and everyone in the building is onboard.”
Brandon Rogers at Northeast High School
Brandon Rogers started working at LPS 11 years ago and has supported students and staff at Northeast High School for the last four years. As the Custodial Supervisor, he most recently facilitated a container reset at Northeast.
Rogers partnered with the Sustainability team who labeled and standardized waste bins throughout the building to promote recycling, reduce the number of plastic bin liners being used and save time for the custodial team. Rogers said that the December reset has already made an impact on waste management in the building. Clear labeling and easily accessible containers have greatly increased the number of cans and plastic bottles being recycled at Northeast.
“Every TPC and lounge now has a place to put their cans, bottles and paper recycling and every hallway has the right amount of containers to for the amount of traffic our building sees,” Rogers said. “I would say a lot of students staff are playing their role.”
We are so grateful to have custodians like Brendan, Leslie and Brandon in our district! Every one of them is dedicated to making things a little better for staff and students every day, and we couldn’t imagine LPS without them.
Sustainability Spotlight: Schoolwide Composting at Arts and Humanities
The February Sustainability Spotlight is shining on the Arts and Humanities Focus Program!
Thanks to student interest, the building now participates in schoolwide composting and collects organic materials in classrooms, restrooms and offices. The Arts and Humanities Student Council started the conversation about stepping up their composting efforts with site leadership and the Sustainability Team last school year.
Renovations to the interior of the Bottler’s Building over winter break provided the perfect opportunity to upgrade waste containers and signage for the start of the spring semester.
High school senior Basil Sedriks serves as president of the student council and said that the addition of schoolwide composting has helped increase students’ awareness of the kinds of waste they are generating.
The program also builds on existing support for choosing reusable drinkware and food containers among the student population.
“It's made me really happy that we have it in place. The whole community has talked more about it, and talked more about the environment, which I think is very nice.”
Just like other high schools, lunch time at Arts and Humanities sees a flurry of conversations and activity. Discussions among the 94 students in the program are unique, though, in that students are frequently double-checking with posted signage, internet searches and each other when they have waste they aren’t sure how to sort.
“Everyone’s been asking questions about what they can compost, what they can recycle, and paying more attention to that now that we have the compost bins here,” Basil said.
Sophomore Jo Peeks said that while he wasn’t a part of bringing schoolwide composting to the building, he is happy to have the chance to participate and support his peers.
“I do my best to call other people out when they’re not putting things in the right baskets,” Jo said. “I also try to make sure I tell teachers what’s going on so that they can put it up on the slideshows and help everyone.”
Staff and student reception to this new opportunity to keep more waste out of the landfill has been exceptionally positive, and reflects Arts and Humanities’ overall culture of collaboration.
Site Coordinator Mar-Lakuittia Overstreet said that the addition of schoolwide composting has tied in well with the Focus Program’s semester theme of the “re-” prefix, providing an opportunity for students to both think about and take action to reduce, reuse and recycle.
“They were overwhelmed and thankful and super excited when we got the bins,” she said. “This is something that collectively, as an entire school, we wanted to ensure that we were composting and having the materials needed.”
Overstreet said that the process has sparked more interest in sustainability efforts outside of composting, as well. Students are talking more about environment-related clubs, and the coming spring will provide a chance to explore the possibility of incorporating the grounds around Arts and Humanities into new sustainability-related projects.
“As we continue to work with it and get materials, we’ll continue to get stronger and better at what we’re doing,” Overstreet said. “I’m very thankful and excited for the students to continue to learn.”
The Sustainability Team has so enjoyed working with everyone at the Arts and Humanities Focus Program to help implement schoolwide composting, and can’t wait to see what they accomplish next!
Contact
Brittney Albin
Sustainability Coordinator
E-mail: balbin@lps.org
Phone: 436-1072 ext. 82007
Latest News
- 24th Annual Cans4Books Drive
- 2024-25 Green Schools Recognition Program Results
- Safety and Sustainability at Elliott Elementary Bike to School Day
- Scrap Metal Drive Raises $920
- Earth Month 2025 Recap
