HUNTINGTON BEACH : School Recycles to Help Fund Farm

Golden View Elementary School, seeking to raise money for its on-site animal farm while teaching students environmental lessons, has introduced a recycling program.

A 10-by-24-foot metal storage container sits in a parking space at the elementary school, where students and neighborhood residents can bring their glass and plastic bottles, newspapers and aluminum cans.

The facility is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of each month.

The proceeds from the recycling effort will go toward supplies, maintenance and equipment for the school’s 4-acre farm.

The farm, which includes goats, sheep and hens, is maintained by a part-time district staff member and adult and student volunteers. The majority of the facility’s funds go toward supplies, the costs of which “have gone sky high” during the past year, principal Michael Merz said.

The school has recycled newspapers for years, raising between $1,500 and $2,000 a year for feed and other farm supplies, Merz said. But with the soaring costs, Merz decided to expand the recycling program this year.

Neither Merz nor program coordinator Vicki Shuttleworth would estimate how much money they think the expanded program will raise. They said they are confident, though, that it will enable them to cover the farm costs.

“So far, we’ve gotten a wonderful response” to the recycling program, Shuttleworth said.

Along with raising money for the farm, the recycling effort has been a focus of environmental lessons for Golden View teachers, Merz said. Students have been learning the importance of recycling and how it works, he said.

To underscore the school’s dedication, Shuttleworth urged district officials at this week’s Ocean View School District Board of Trustees meeting to recycle their computer paper and presented a container to District Supt. Monte McMurray to help with the effort.