Parent Pushes for Less Paper Use at Rocky Point Schools

Tina Bogart, a parent of three and soon to be four children enrolled in Rocky Point Schools, had plenty of praise for the district at Monday's Board of Education meeting. She did, however, have one major plea for the board: less paper waste.

Bogart, an 11-year resident of Rocky Point, said that in her 10 years of teaching in six different districts in New York State, she has never seen so many photocopies generated within a school system.

I speak on behalf of the parents when I saw that we need less paper waste in our schools," Bogart said. "Last year my family and I decided to try an experiment. For a full calendar year, we saved and shredded every piece of paper not worth saving that my three children brought home from school every afternoon."

Bogart not only saved all the shredded paper, but her family brought in the paper, bag by bag, to put in front of the board as a visual aid to show just how much paper waste the district was generating. She said that it was over 50 pounds of paper.

"I can honestly say I couldn’t agree more," Superintendent Michael Ring said. "One of the things I started working on three or four years ago is the Green Committee and getting paperless."

Ring pointed to the laptops sitting in front of each member of the board and administration at the meeting as one change that was made. He also mentioned the 99-cent rule that applies to Summer mailings; which means nothing can be sent home during the summer that can't be done with 99 cents worth of postage.

Bogart had some suggestions of her own, including having teachers buy their own paper, having children write directly in workbooks and notebooks rather than photocopies, and more.

"Double sided or half sheets will literally cut this problem in half," she said. "And I have to commend some teachers for doing so."

Ring agrees that the problem mainly stems from the classroom, and that suggestions such as teachers buying their own paper would be helpful.

"I too worked in a school as a teacher where we had to bring our own paper," he said. "If you wanted to use the copy machine you had to bring your own paper. We haven’t instituted that here but we have to change the culture. Those that work with me know that I can’t stand paper and I want everything sent to me as an email attachment."

This coming year, with a fourth child entering the district and set to start Kindergarten in the Fall, Bogart said she will be saving and shredding all paper send from the schools again. She hopes to see the waste cut in half, to at least 30 pounds rather than the 50-plus generated from three children this year.

"I wish I could say that’s going to be cut in half next year, and our partnership with our teachers can make that happen," Ring said.