show good morning welcome to changes the program on sustainability i'm suzanne gregory the coordinating producer of the show and today we have actually a pre recorded show last week travis barrington visited departure be eco school here in the ny mo it's a fascinating place and he interviewed the principal lisa freight so today on the show we'll hear that interview a four years and this adventure this eco school adventure began two years ago so we've had many different phases which i'm sure i'll talk about a little later we'll get to but i'm from and i'm all so i grew up here and have enjoyed the environment and the outdoors here and so i personally have a passion for a school like this and been using it definitely to our schools advantage excellent so we use the phrase eco school to describe departure bay and i'm not sure if everyone listening you day has heard of that phrase so what makes an eco school well we have a school wide theme and ecology theme so our overall goal is to develop our students equal literacy and we have many partnerships and projects that we've put into place that have helped us meet that goal and a big part of what our school is is utilizing the resources around our school to implement place based learning and we are involving our students in hands on experiences and we are really utilizing the people who are currently doing ecological type work in our in our immediate community and really what we're doing is we're involving our students in a lot of citizen science projects and we are getting our students outside so a big part of our school is increasing our students time outdoors as well as connecting them to the outdoors in this immediate area and utilizing that for our teaching yeah i like that you mentioned the place based learning and getting outdoors in my job i go to a lot of schools to teach workshops with the environment and everything and it's been really great especially those last few months to see a lot of schools even if they aren't in a location such as yours to go out for just a walk or just being outside in a forest or anything like that so i've been seeing that change all the schools i go to what was going to driving the change here to go that extra step what i think like i mentioned before it was that realize ation that our location we had so many natural resources around us we have of course the departure beach we have departure creek would stream park many green spaces that are part of the city of new and imo as well as linley valley and  i think we our staff and our parents realize that we were not fully utilizing all those places or the people who work in those places so that was is one of the changes the desire to get outside more often and use those spaces i think is well there has been a lot of recent research that has come out about the benefits of out of outdoor education and getting our students outside more often and the research has supported areas like of course better academic performance physical and mental health and has shown social and emotional growth in students so i'd opportunity we're at  beginning of sort of the idea to go down to victoria to a green symposium and see a researcher named dr louise shala speak and it was a wonderful presentation where she really highlighted her research  and the benefits of getting children outdoors regularly i also i think an influence not just myself but around parents and other people on staff who were involved in creating and developing an eco school a lot of us read the last child in the woods a book written by richard louve and he coined that phrase nature deficit disorder and certainly highlighted the fact that our children  are not getting outside often and what the negative consequences of that are and so besides the health and the academic benefits i think as well the curriculum has changed in b so we have something called the b c ad plan and that philosophy of that plan is around providing a relevant hands on personalized experiences for students to be involved in and is also a plan that supports inquiry based learning so the kind of learning where students themselves are driving their learning and the teacher is in the role of a facilitator so it's it's a kind of learning where we encourage our students to ask questions and we play on with the things that they're curious about and encourage them to find and use strategies and develop their competencies and skills and in finding answers another piece of research that i think is important is that students who spend more time outside and who are more connected outside are not only healthier but they will also in their adult life engage in activities more activities that are around advocating for the environment and taking action for the environment and i think that we have some environmental issues in the future that need to be faced and some problem solving to do and and our children are the future and we want to prepare them and give them skills to be able to manage that yeah that's that's an excellent point and i was just about to ask what makes this type of education so valuable but i think you answered a lot of that covered a lot of bases with that and even you know there's the qualitative things you said about test scores and performance but and the future and need for people to advocate for the environment because i think i get a little over an inaccurate picture when i think  group of people who are concerned with the environment then i realize there's a lot of other people out there who aren't so active but i also realize it's part of my job to be advocating for the environment so i'm surrounded by people who do that just to share about the value of that to like you said but also qualitatively i've just seen classes where we go outside for a walk in the forest or something and just the other day i went with the class to better times marsh and the activity was just to find a spot each student to find a spot on their own for twenty minutes and just sit and watch observe write down just what they're feeling what they're seeing anything like that and at the end of that twenty minutes they wanted another twenty minutes so it's really great to see that like kids who had trouble focusing w are there in everything yeah i think that that's been a big positive learning for the staff i think sometimes ornish really the idea of spending that more time outside i think to some it's feeling like it's maybe something added additional to do and how am i going to cover the curriculum outside but i think that our staff quickly learned that when they took students outside the amount of learning that was taking place on a variety of different levels and what they were able to see the gauge meant of the students and their interest in the activities the questions that they were asking where it was it was a happy thing for our staff to see i mean i remember one teacher in particular who took their class outside for the first time practically skipping back into the school going wow i can't believe how much they you know they how enjoyable of an experience that was for her because she was was in the role of the facilitator but she was able to see her students doing things showing teamwork and she was able to see them demonstrate their knowledge of what had been covered in the classroom and how they applied it in the outdoor situation and as well the students who may have a difficult time sitting in their seat in the classroom where engaged in that hands on really relevant learning it they were very engaged so you would see less of the maybe some of the difficulties that we see in a traditional classroom setting but i do want to be clear i think some are to clarify i suppose that idea of equal school i'm saying that we spend more time outside but there are many things that happen in our school that look like a traditional school and another component of our school as well is that we  we've piloted this year in nature kindergarten program and that is a future goal of our school to have in nature primary program where students would spend between three and four mornings outside and then they return to the classroom in the afternoon a lot of their activities are then building upon what they learned in the morning but their activities will look very much like a typical any other school of anyone's concern there is still a traditional education going on here but also it's good to see that these ideas are kind of being spread to other schools as well even if they can't get the full eco school designation or don't quite have the location here they're still able to participate in these things do you see this spreading to a lot of other schools or more schools getting this full ignition since it's become more public what we're doing we often get phone calls from teachers at other schools who have asked about you know how have we implemented the waste program waste management program that we've had as an example or they're curious about a lot of the projects that we're doing and i and i'm thrilled to have that i know my staff is thrilled to have that because the idea is not to be exclusive the idea is to share our knowledge because we think that's going to benefit all children and so we been asked to do a lot of sharing and i'm i think that part of our school being designated as an eco school has brought more attention to that in schools and it's caused more awareness number of different levels so i see it catching and i see people you know asking questions about what we're doing and you've told me you're busier so i know that i definitely know that people are utilizing  and i think that's process of leaving through word of mouth around how how great the experiences in the what you've been doing at our school has been so certainly it's got the attention of other schools just within our district but in other districts as well i've been collaborating with other programs that are similar and we've been doing a lot of sharing so i see it catching and i think that that's that's wonderful i'm not sure if there would be other schools in this district that would be eco schools that would mean a whole school wide focus i'm not sure but i'm not saying that's not possible and i think that would be wonderful yeah just seems like such a natural fit that we would get more schools or at the very least all schools having some aspect of this in their curriculum just because here on the island in d c in general such a huge part of the identity of of the people here is going outside and appreciating that and yeah and thank you for that i have been quite busy the server knows i teach environmental workshops at schools and i always try to bring something hands on or something from the outdoors in but now i'm a lot busier and know a lot of that work is also involving me accompanying classes on the outdoor trips which is a wonderful experience for me and the kids always have a lot of fun as well and it's a great like you said just to let inquiry happen and facilitate learning but there's always something to see and find and questions asked so it's really really exciting and yeah well you were saying before as well about some of the design elements of the school like the waste management program i would of course have to ask about that coming from the n r a and on your website there's a map of the schools and future sites and plans of things to be added and i have course have to ask about the recycling center which i just actually found out about the other day zero waste and  will meeting and with something i hope to get involved in but maybe if you could tell us a little bit about that for now i should just say that in the development of the school we had we had three phases so our first phase was a set up face it was what we looked at what would be needed in order to set up a school to be an eco school and right away some things came out that were really important and one was to have a waste management program at our school as well as school garden of those you know we it was really important that if we were to be an eco school that we would be seen as being responsible especially in the area of waste management and we have we've done some really exciting things and we started out by collecting our garbage for a week and having our senior students sorting out the garbage on a big tarp and then having the rest of the classes in the school just take a close look at what was being thrown out and having them come up with ideas and and brainstorming and so they came up with ideas and then we did the activity again and then they monitored how we were doing and we made adjustments and so that's a perfect example of how we've involved to give in some responsibility for our students to our students and involve them in coming up with a responsible waste management program in our school so we do have green bans and certainly things aren't perfect but they're always being monitored and looked at and another thing we did at the beginning to start off our year last year was we had each we took the garbage cans out of classrooms and we had each of our students have a small container on their desk and they collected their own personal garbage for a week and then at the end of the week they looked at what they created here at school that couldn't be recycled or put in our green bin and we connected that with a piece writing that they did and we also share that with the whole school so we also measured our r i teach math in grade seven we shoved all that garbage into  cylinder and learned how to calculate the volume of a city and we had a little contest between classes to see who could create the least amount of waste in that week and gave away a waste challenge trophy which would consisted of  a green a small green recycling bucket with a plaque on it so we try to make it fun but anyway that is one that was one of our initial projects that has just been ongoing and that we monitor as well as the gardens as far as plans for the school i'm as i mentioned we have a lot of we've a wealth of places that we can visit in this area that can complement our teaching and drive our teaching but we also have a desire to have elements right on our school property as well and we've been lucky enough to be working with a group called my c d c which is cooperate and who have been helping us collect information from our students and our parents and the public about what things are possible on this property what kinds of things could be part of an eco school and so it's been very exciting work to be connected with people such as a wetland biologist who says that you know we could possibly have a wetland on this property that that could be an outdoor classroom space and i had the opportunity to visit an actual school down in victoria strop revell that has a wetland space that they use so a wetland space is something that's been proposed  a possible market garden concept recycling center and food for us so next tuesday june sixteenth we have a meeting here at the school at six o'clock that's open to anybody who wants to be part of that to have a look at what a vision of our equal school could be and to give us some feedback about that so yeah that meeting you mentioned on tuesday is actually the day that this show will air so everyone listening this very day it will be at departure bay school at six thirty six o'clock sorry my mistake and so public is welcome to come in and discuss plans for things like the recycling center in the market garden and i will definitely be there to talk about the recycling center and hopefully i get a lot of feedback and draw in the community like you were saying so we are drawing on the community groups in the community and there's just something how can more parents and people get involved not just with this school as well but if they want to see this type of initiative at their own school or their children go i think the beauty of having a theme of a school is that people really understand and connect with that and they can easily think about what they have to offer that can link into that so we've been fortunate enough to have some initial partnerships that we set up with groups such as and i will science and sustainability and do yourself and other or you know the city of and imo as well with our park and basters program but we've also had just parents or people from the community who have contacted us and said hey you know i work at the biological station and then we take fish samples and how would you like for us to set up a display for your students to look at and so that's been the great part about what we're doing is that you know we have a parent for example who is an artist who's been helping our grade two three class create a an ocean theme mandella for school and that's because people just you know approached myself or approached a teacher and said i think this would really fit in with what you're doing and what do you think and we welcome that so as far as being involved in our school people are certainly welcome to contact us i believe on our web page we have a form that people can fill out letting us know what they may have to offer and giving us their contact number so we can call on them so certainly you can have a look at that on the web site or my e mail is also available on the web site for people to contact us and and let us know that they like to be involved and there have been a lot of people who have offered something to us and we haven't been able to utilize that but certainly they're always on the radar and that's our goal so as far as how people can initiate the this type of thing in their own schools i would strongly encourage them to talk to their administrator and their pac pac has a powerful voice and they were certainly a big part of initiating the changes that took place at our school so you know bring up some ideas at a pac meaning and talk them over there and yeah you know approach your schools and offer i think that it's one of the things about our school now is that we especially right now have amazing parent involvement as well as community involvement and i feel that parents want to be they want to be involved in the school in some way and a lot of times what prevents them from being involved is because they just don't quite know how to approach that but you know i think that everybody wants for their school to be a community school and to have everybody involved i think it's good for all of our students and so i think that all schools would be very approachable that's an excellent point about the means not just because you're an eco school that people are getting involved maybe it's just helped that your school gain a bit more notoriety if you want to help out but a great point to remind  all schools could accept help from anyone with the skills of gardening scientists artists anything like that and that's great yeah it's not just an ecological focus for the community focus again like you were saying and also you mentioned and it's three and i am a science and sustainability society and i would you know i've worked for them in the past as well so i'm familiar with their group and i'm very excited they've got their science studio here and also they were part of the social enterprise a couple weeks ago and got some excellent news there so studio here maybe you could just i know that you're not totally affiliated with them but maybe you could tell us a little bit about them and what they have going here when we were in the the set up phase of our school i think as i mentioned the one thing that we ne needed to do was to implement some response practices in our school but the other part of that set up phase was looking for people who were working in the area and who had similar goals and certainly  and imo science and sustainability society their goals are to excite and engage students and families children and families in science and they were the very first group i called to just have them come in and share with them the idea of an eco school and just ask for some suggestions because they were a new organization at the time too and a beautiful partnership blossomed right then and there they were really excited to see that a school would have a focus that would be science related they've been trying to accomplish a science center or a stand alone science center here in for quite some time they were aware that there is a school i believe in colona that also incorporated a science center in their schools open space and that it was very successful and so they really aren't quite ready for that move to an individual stand alone spot so a part of their setting that up was to find a space possibly within a school or somewhere else that they could share in the meantime while they begin they develop their programs and grow and so we were fortunate enough to be that space that they were able to come to and where i say that it's been a wonderful partnership is as i mentioned we have a lot of the same goals and vision but they have a wealth of expertise in their board and their employees around science education and obviously the great enthusiasm and they've been able to work really well with our staff and offer after school programs not just to my school but to other schools as well and we host a once a year saturday event  was amazing this past year we had approximately twelve hundred people come to our school on a saturday that was an event hosted jointly by the national science and sustainability and our school so we have been wonderful partners and i know that they're likely here for another year but they are also looking if you get that science center up and running here and imo and we've just been really happy to have had the opportunity to partner with them yeah with mention they have their science camps coming up in the studio here so there's lots of activities i believe their web site is the one with science dot or i might be wrong in that but if you search an s three online you'll find them and get information about all their upcoming programs and you are listening to c h l y one a one point seven f m you are listener supported campus and community station based in downtown and imo but heard wherever there's an internet connection at c h l y dot ca and indeed the website for the then i am a science and sustainability society or in has three is known imo science dot org now a events as you heard just a few minutes ago there is an event this evening at departure be eco school at six pm to unveil the results of the visioning that they've been doing for things that could be done there the address is three zero zero four departure b road it's just up from the intersection of departure bay road and hammond b road just just at the end of departure beach so it's it's fairly easy to find and you can find their website by going to s d six dot b c dot ca and following the links under elementary schools a few if  showcases seafood producers from across b c at a stunning ocean site heritage park located in comix harbor enjoys shellfish and seafood tastings prepared by chefs who live and breathe seafood there's also live music beer garden educational displays live touch tanks and demos the event supports the b c shellfish growers association bursaries for north island colleges aquaculture program in its center for applied research technology and innovation division it's part of the ninth annual b c shell fish and seafood festival something that's a kind of important food source for us on the island here and we don't always talk about it we talk about farms a lot but this is something that's important to us too especially with concerns about ocean acidification and so on so good thing to kind of see what's going on with the shellfish industry especially for more information and for tickets you can visit triple w dot discover co marks valley dot com slash shellfish hyphen festival hyphen info sunday june twenty first just mention this june twenty first that is is summer solstice the day of the longest period of daylight in the northern hemisphere our stat holidays seem to be based more on political or religious events or other traditions that have been invented by humans but this is an annual event of the solar system and it isn't a holiday so go figure although some religions have observed it but they didn't invent it this is something that that happens in the solar system so enjoy that longest day of daylight on sunday pull together one canoe many paddles we've mentioned this once before on the show it's an initiative to support several first nations in their legal challenges to the proposed enbridge pipeline and one really easy way to support this is to purchase denman island chocolates simply dark pull together bar from now until june thirtieth at selected retailers around b c and remember that it has to be the pull together bar rather than the regular simply dark bar and these are available in the ny mo at the green store and old city organics on fitzwilliam street in vancouver you can find them at mountain equipment co op but there are quite a few other retailers around b c as well carrying them or you can order directly from denman island chocolate at denman island chocolate dot com now denman island chocolate is made from organic fairly traded chocolate and it is really good i can personally vouch for that all of their profits on this particular bar will go to the pull together campaign and then now let's go back to the second part of the changes interview today recorded last week by travis barrington with lisa frey principal of departure bay eco school so we talked with those partnerships within the community and also much of the other school in colona is there any are they in line with the eco school program as well or are they just in there and in doing their own program funny thing was is that there was a science focus school so it wasn't in eco school but a science focused school and their program became so popular that the space that the science group was using was necessary to have a classroom in there but it was good timing for them because they were then ready to move out on their own as well and the school did stay a science focused school of course as far as eco schools in b c there are a lot of schools that have different versions are different methods of putting an equal focus together and i've been lucky enough to learn from them and be connected to them and do some sharing so it is share a little bit about some of the other programs one of the schools that we've connected with  elementary in souk and they have a nature kindergarten program that's been running i believe now for three years and it's one that some researchers have been closely following to measure the impacts of that program on or on those students and their learning and physical development as well and social development and they've been a great resource for us my our kindergarten teacher has been connected with them and is doing some learning with them and that program was inspired by a program called four schools it originated in england so a lot of their nature kindergarten programs are a variation of a four schools program james bay my understanding is that some victoria they have to nature kindergarten program so maybe not necessarily a whole school why focus by the focus of have of having young students kindergarten students outside of you know for a good portion of the time and davis bay elementary  i believe for also in their second year this year a nature primary school i visited them and had the opportunity have had the opportunity to do some sharing with them as to turn island which is ecological center their school and but one island as well has an ecological program a school wide and another really interesting school i think is maple ridge has a program where they don't actually physically have a school building so but they are traveling school where parents will drop their children off at a particular location in the community and maybe that will be the spot that they drop off and pick up for a week well they explore that outdoor area and then off to another place for a period of time so they are immobile classroom with an eco focus as well so it's kind of interesting we're none of us are exactly the same but there have been some really exciting and interesting ideas that have come out of our schools that have this focus and we're learning with each other and sharing with each other and that's been really exciting to have that type of a partnership as well sorry to dismiss the brand new program new space alimentary will be implementing nature kindergarten i believe and next september so brand new and they have a partnership with vi you similar to our school and so i think we'll be doing a lot of sharing and learning together in the future as well yeah it is very exciting to see all those schools to sue people know there are those public schools or just more in private schools that are doing this they're public schools up so for a public school what type of process what what are the process in the benefits i guess that you get from getting this eco school designation much of a challenge or was it fairly straightforward so i had the support of my assistant superintendent and as i mentioned before the idea came from a suggestion from our pac and it was we were at a meeting and somebody brought that up the suggestion of an eco school app and it seemed like people just heard that and went can we do that  there was this instant excitement and so i approached my assistant superintendent and asked you know can this be done and was lucky enough to be the to be given the freedom to you know yes it can be done and i just go for it you know to what can you know put something together and go ahead and create something and have been really supportive of the plans and so we got to a point where we laid out sort of our vision our process i suppose which was the three phases i mentioned a set up phase a piloting year phase and then you will be entering into our full academy status so in march we presented the board with a request to become an academy  and they accepted that request and gave us academy status which really means that our official name however school is departure bay eco school academy and it also gave us the ability to not only service the students who are in my immediate catchment area but to to begin a process or to put a process in place for students that are not within our catchment area to apply to come to the eco school so we are currently in that process we're taking applications up to june fifteenth i know that this will air after that but we are taking applications for the eco school op until june fifteenth and we will look at the space that we have available and at that point in time if we have more applicants than we have spots then it will be a drive very similar to the process that's followed for french immersion schools in our district so it's our first time going through this process but it was difficult s the as i mentioned i felt very supported and of course happy to be supported by the board and i think what made it successful was having the community partners involved and certainly part of our application included letters from parents teachers and community members urging the board to accept our request and designate us an academy and give us some recognition for the work that we've been doing very exciting and very exciting for a lot of parents who might be listening who maybe not this year as the african today will have passed well this airs but maybe next year will want to try to enroll their kids here because i could see that being a very very popular program for a lot of people and maybe if they don't get in that will encourage more of this and more community supported other schools to incorporate some of these ideas it's wonderful to hear so with that in the three phase plan i also looked and saw on your map things like the market garden outdoor classrooms in the long term plans what's the i'm just trying to envision in my head what an outdoor classroom would look like in with our weather here as well what would the students be expecting in their in our pilot year we've technically had some outdoor classrooms they've just been off site outdoor classrooms but i guess the term outdoor classroom would refer to any space that we go to regularly to learn so with stream park and departure beach and a little place  right behind park a beautiful forest there has been an outdoor learning space for us all year and our pilot year and our students they unless it saw torrential downpour or dangerous windy we go outside and part of that is that they're prepared with rain gear and probably we would hear more complaints from adults about that than we ever would from students they're well prepared and although it is something we ask that parents help provide boots and ring gear we do our very best to make sure that everybody has everything that they need to go outside and be comfortable for their learning time and again that's through our community support and making sure that all of our students are able to do that and so in our future plans as i mentioned we would like some outdoor learning spaces right here on our school property but it wouldn't be any different than the learning spaces that we are currently going to some of the proposed spaces waiting clued seating and a shelter area but some specific spaces would be our garden and that is technically an outdoor learning space and we're hoping next year to have the support from food share and staff personnel from food share be able to come to our school on a regular basis and assist us with a regular lessons in our the guard at the current garden that we have so  to have the support from a wetland biologist and as well has been offered by an s three to help us develop together lessons that we can implement on site wetland area have some pretty exciting potential there so help that answers how they might look well i guess probably answer i have seen your outdoor classrooms they have done a few of the forest walks and yeah just a classroom just comes up with this image of a more formalized setting but you know they definitely were learning spaces and everyone had a great time there and yeah your mention of the wetland on site as well i've been doing quite a bit of that work with classes lately and exploring gabriel island they're very lucky to have a wetland right across the street from their school and they next year are going to be an open gate school so they'll be able to go on walks and explore the areas of all the classes without permission slips or things like that just here as well and yeah the well in exploration is is one of those things that i really enjoy doing with classes because it's something very new to most people and i just get the feeling with the schools well it can be a lot of that discovery because you take kids to oil and they see the plants they look for frogs but when you get your boots on and go add to that to one of the activities that we've done in the local stream close by is to monitor the health of the stream and use the invertebrates in the stream as indicators of the health and it's amazing how many of our students there unaware that there are all these invertebrates in there and when they see them and start what we've done is we've done a collection and then had them sort invertebrates and then do some identification and it's amazing how there are things under there that and creatures in that stream that they didn't know of and then to learn that those creatures can be used to help indicator and monitor the health of the stream is is quite incredible when other project that we did sorry go off topic here but one of the other things that we did as we mentioned earlier had some partnerships with vi you have had a lot of student teachers here in our school but as well we've had some master students who have done some of their master's work in research here at the school and one actually  acts and has three staff or jamie anderson is a geology student and she took our students down to departure creek as well and there was it i was with them on that lesson and it was interesting for her she asked our grade two and three students where they thought the water came from that was in that creek and the funny thing was is they mentioned glaciers and things like that and they were really surprised to learn that the water that's in that the his coming from the source is just behind wellington school and that that's rain and runoff and so they quickly learn that you know everything that we're doing in our backyards are eventually going into that creek and they've been connected with the animals now in that creek also so the idea of connecting them to bad definitely lends well to them looking after it because they have so much more knowledge about that what nature is around us and more of an understanding of what stewardship is very very good lesson to pass along especially when and any other organizations that you're partnering with right now i have a list because it's too many for me to actually remember but it is good news so the big one is of course  i u and we're really excited next year that some of their classes will actually be taking place at our school and in a space at our school and so that would have the i used didn't see here at our school taking their lessons and then spending the afternoon out in our classrooms and being involved in the activities are happening in the classrooms and as well i mentioned something that's been happening more often that i thought leave instructors to the kind of teaching that they have been implementing at via you are often community action projects so i will get contacted often by students who are in like for example sustainability management program i mentioned the geology program and also education program students who have offered the opportunity to do some research or to to do a community action project here at our school so because they're aware of the theme and what we've been doing what we've been doing so that's been some great partnerships that we've had happening there then i'm more area land trust definitely was a group that we spoke with in the beginning but haven't been able to we've been so busy with things we haven't quite utilized them yet but definitely that's one on the radar for wanting to initiate that next year right now i've had all year i've had their stream marking kid here at the school that we haven't gotten that far i think that's one thing i can say about what we're doing is that there's no lack of opportunities and things going on and so another i don't want mention to the north island while they for cover a center ross peterson who works there as a volunteer he's been here at the school with their our will and he's come here several times to work with one of our classes down in the stream today they were just down there looking at bugs so north island wildlife recovery center has been a partner and as i mentioned before and this three vi you and i do know on our website we have a page that yes the many partners we have and some of them are going to is asians and groups and some of them have just been individuals i should also mention that we have a university women's association that does a sea shore unit here at our school every year and that's a unit that is open to all grade four classes this year all right grade four classes so we had many grade four classes from other schools come and see the display that they put on and learn all about the seashore from the woman's group who basically for about a month and a half take over a classroom and set up a wonderful display and that display includes a lot of live creatures that they bring back and forth every day from the pacific biological station so it's wonderful to have them here at the school and that is a that's been three years now this year that we've had them here so they've been a great and we have individuals we have had like i mentioned before i'm local biologist charles their call has been really involved in the school and so we've had individual people we've handed you know parents as well as individuals and and a lot of groups but there's a full list because i know i'm going to forget to name people and probably some really important ones right now but there is a full list our website so like you said no shortage of support there yeah that's wonderful to see the community coming behind an idea like this that hopefully will already we already see is spreading so i think that's another good reminder the of the meeting that will be tonight when the show airs at six pm so if there's anybody who wants to join the ever growing list of people helping out of the school that would be a wonderful time to to learn more oh yeah why don't we just wrap up now if you have any final thoughts or words about the school the process the plans anything that's being of no to long awaited certainly has been a lot well thank you i guess really i just want to make sure that i thank all the people who have been involved in getting our program to where it is today and it's been a list of many many people who have been really supportive and it wouldn't be possible without them and i have to also right off the bat mention the teachers this is been a big change for them they totally embraced it  only the ecological theme but implementing our new draft curriculum as well and there's been a tremendous amount of learning and i have to say that they have been quite the team and i just want to make sure that i acknowledge them and our students as well who have responded so well to this type of learning and given us some positive feedback and have been part of the process as well so all of our partner groups and everybody involved a big big thank you because we wouldn't be where we are today and  that we are making it possible for our students to do this type of learning and without their support so i just want to say thank you and it has been a real pleasure to be seeing a program be effective in helping our students are empowering our students and in many ways it's been a real pleasure and thank you to everybody who's been part of that wonderful well thank you lisa for being on the show and agreeing to be interviewed i know you have a very busy schedule specially as the school year is winding down and it's been great i'm sure we're going to get a lot of feedback in interest from this topic and maybe a few more interested parents like you as well so yeah once again thank you very much that was travis barrington talking with l fraley principal of departure bay eco school here in the ny mo kind of a new initiative but a very exciting one now we had hoped that travis would actually be in the studio by now he had  workshop at a school somewhere in the area this morning but he has been delayed obviously so we'll just mention that something that we learned apart from this interview is that the staff i guess the senior staff of the school district have recommended to the school board that four schools be closed it's the usual thing about balancing the budget and apparently departure bay school is one of the ones on the list that wasn't something that was able to be discussed in the interview but we know that some of the parents are very concerned it doesn't mean the end of eco schools in the night because if that particular school closes another school may be designated as the eco school it's just that departure bay is in such a unique location they've got several different ecosystems right in their vicinity so it would be quite a shame from some people's perspective to lose that now that's not what this evening's event is about this evening is just about the visioning for what more can happen at an eco school but certainly if you are able to make it out there tonight or if you're not but you would like to follow this issue you could certainly once again check the web site s d sixty eight dot b c dot ca a under elementary schools its departure bay it's called departure bay elementary school there and i believe there is a link on their site for their pack or their parent advisory committee or council who would likely be the ones who would be working to try to keep the eco school at departure bay so that's just a little bit of action that you might be able to take in order to see that this kind of a program continues and continues perhaps at its optimal level rather than perhaps going to another school that doesn't have quite the same access to different ecosystems that the students can learn from not that the other students shouldn't have the advantages that come with a program like this and that's another thing to consider but of course as lisa free mentioned in the interview they have been able to take applications from all over the districts for hum parents who would like to see their children be in an eco school so some food for thought and no we'll just sign off i guess thank you very much to travis barrington and lisa frey for that interview today and on behalf of our production team thank you so much for joining us diversity a caring community