Save the Trees!

My sons school has an email service that we can sign up through the PTA for. Even so a lot of papers still come home and mine is doubled because I have a Kindergartener and first grader.

My son's school is great about saving paper. They have an e-school newsletter for email updates as well as a monthly newsletter that includes the PTA information so that they are both combined and the PTA saves money too. We were inundated the first month of school, but it tapered off quickly. Also notes from his teacher, etc are on a little, little note about 1/8 of an 8x11 paper. Good luck.

Schools in my area allow parents to provide them with an email address and they notify parents by a mass email.

Loudoun County has a system wide phone alert system that is pretty new. If you live there, please ask your principal to get behind it. Also, to really see any change, you're going to have to probably head this up yourself. Make yourself the head volunteer to consolidate, put things on 1/2 sheets of paper, do double sided copies or, better yet, get your school ONLINE. Get everything on the school website and have the parents that sincerely don't have access to online, come into the office for a hard copy. Our school newsletter is done this way and saves us 850 copies a month!

My son's preschool sends papers home once a month. His teachers pack as much information onto as little paper as possible. They also get a monthly calendar that has all the information and "reminders" on it so they don't have to send separate reminders home for each event.

Being a teacher, I can tell you that I totally understand! The problem with changing the format in which the information is delivered is that not all parents have computers, or pick up their kids from school and read the bulletin boards, and not all kids have the ability to relay that kind of info. to their parents. So ofcourse we are left with the normal paper trail. Maybe you could suggest to your school that they try to use half sheets as much as possible... and always remember to recycle the papers your child gets when he gets home when you are finished with them.

Our daughter brought reams of paper home everyday in California. Our Grandson lives in France and he brings home very little. He is eight and if he has done some drawing it is usually on the back of something. They don't waste paper after the teachers have copied various things from the text books they use the back of the paper for the kids to draw and paint on. For the informational notices he has a book which he pastes the paper into twice a month and all the things that are happening for the next two weeks or more are printed on that. So his paper trail is very much smaller. For which I am very grateful as we try not to throw his masterpieces out.

I know this response will be similar to many others but I wanted to share the thoughts from my school. Our school has gone online. Our school newsletter goes home via email every Monday and any other flyer that needs to go out goes out via email. The thought behind this is; 1. we help save the environment and 2. parents work so they at least have email at work , or 3. they can go to a public library and register for a free email account and all of which they will still receive the school info. If they don't have access at work, no transportation, etc. then we will make a hard copy for them but they have to come in and tell us. More places are online so many people should be able to find a way to get online too.
We start the beginning of the year collecting all parents emails on our Open House, which is before school starts. These are given to our librarian who compiles the mass email list. We have done this for the last 3 or 4 years and we have had no complaints so far. When there is a will there is a way. Change is hard but it is good. If you need help you could call our school at ###-###-#### and ask for Carrie. She is wonderful and would be able to tell you how it works for her or how she sets everything up. Good Luck!!!

Hi C.!

Our school has an email list, but they still send home flyers about events. I have suggested that they use recycled paper and that the PTA pay the difference if it costs more. The PTA president was willing to go along with that. Maybe you could try that?

Good luck!

At my daughter's elementary school they had an option where I could OPT OUT of getting all those types of papers. I recycle, but what a waste it was so I did opt out. I still get a few things each week, but not the deluge others get.

We also have an email newsletter and I think they should just put those things in there. Perhaps suggest it to your PTA.

My children's school was wasting paper too by sending notes home for every little thing. We stopped that a few years ago. Now once a week, on Friday, a newsletter is sent home which covers everything important for the upcoming week and whatever wonderful events occured the past week.
Last year, the newsletter went paperless. It is now sent via email. If you choose, you can still receive a paper copy.
I don't think people are as diligent about reading the online newsletter, but it does save on waste. Suggest it to the school and see what happens.

Hi. I think we all are inundated with with way too much paperwork from schools these days and you are correct, what a waste. What is very wonderful about my kids' preschool is that they recycle their paper. People donate old letterhead, etc and this is what the children use to draw on. You do have me thinking, though. Perhaps our schools should send out just a weekly letter outlining everything they want us to know about...donut day, grandparents day, art, requested supplies....Baby steps make the biggest difference!!

C.,
This takes a real committment on the part of the school. It is worthwhile involving the school administration as well as the parent's association. Use cost as a motivator. There are savings associated with lower use of paper and selling paper waste to recyclers. There is an inconvenience in changing the way the school does business. Things to think about:
What alternative communication mode will be used: Web-based announcements, email, announcement boards.
Who has the ability to send/post the communications: Classroom teachers, grade leaders, administrators, parent's association.
Are additional resources needed to manage this process?
How often will the communications be sent: Email boxes are inundated with messages! How do you ensure the school emails are not overlooked, yet still be timely.
How timely are the notes sent out: I can rely on 90% of paper copies via the "backpack" system reaching home the same day, but only 20% of the emails/web postings being read the same day. So, emails need to be sent sooner.
How will email addresses be collected and the list maintained: Does everyone have email access? Who will manage the list?

Our school made the committment two years ago and we are still making adjustments. We saw fund-raising results decrease simply because parents did not have a piece of paper to remind them of an event. However, we are making changes and improving the process. The classrooms can make changes to support raise the attention on recycling as well. Math classes are plotting the use of paper and weight of recycled paper. Civics classes are conducting recyling audits and developing specific improvement plans. Science classes are looking at impacts on the environment.

If nothing else, reuse the papers as notes back to teachers and recycle! Good Luck! It is a great endeavor.

Maybe you could address this issue through the PTA. Ours started a recycling program in our school, and parent volunteers check the classrooms to see whether computers and lights are left on when the class is at lunch/recess, and whether there is paper in the garbage instead of the recycling bins. There is a contest between the classrooms for being the best "conservers". Point is, parents initiated all of this and follow through. You can make a difference!

Maybe talk to the school Principle about listing these days on a calendar. Or even sending out reminders the Friday before. They could easily have more than one reminder on a page and just cut them to place in each folder too.

This is a really interesting concern lol. You should mention it to one of the administrators or the school's principal. Their way of communication is obviously not streamlined; bring that up, along with your hopes that they are recycling, in accordance with the department of public works for whatever city/county your child goes to school in...and that you wouldn't want the school to be reported and/or fined on that particular principal's watch...

Not a threat, but a friendly admonition. What's Earth going to be like for our kids' when they grow to be our age if we don't take responsibility now? And what examples are they setting for our kids relative to conservation/recylcling?

This is pretty common. Our school now does an online newsletter, but sends home the paper copy to those who don't have email. When they do send things home, they only send it with the youngest child in the school. Just make sure that all those papers end up in the recycling bin, not the trash!

Schools aways do that I'm not sure why my only idea is to teach children responsibility. Sending these papers home with them shows them if they want something they need to make sure their parents know about it. Also even when things go wrong at school they need to make sure the message goes to mom. I mean the teacher could send mass emails each evening but i thin the lesson to the kids to make sure the parents get the message is missed and the kids will never have the responsibility of getting it to you if they want it. Also Sometimes alot of sources give the teacher a paper with a certain activity so she just stacks them together and gives them out. I don't believe all of them are from her directly. But that's all i can figure out.

I'm a teacher in a private school and we've recently stopped sending home a ton of paper. We're doing everything via email and the interent, including our report cards. You could suggest to your child's school to look into doing more things electronically.

I have one drawer in the kitchen that we put all the extra paper in, which the back side is not written on. We use it to print rough drafts, take spelling practice tests, do math, make gracery lists, take phone messages, etc. Then after both sides are used, we recycle it.

I have had exactly the same thoughts! I've considered writing to the school principle to ask it does seem like they should be able to post stuff online or something. Not only to I get the announcements but loads of my child's papers, which is great when unique but frustrating when it's much of the same again and again.
Let me know if you come up with any ideas.

R. A

I know what you mean about this - at one point I had three children at the same school and yes, I got EVERYTHING 3 times. Luckily, we have a local paperboard that takes all paper and cardboard recycling, I just tossed them into a box and droped them off every so often. Our school also has a paper recycling program - maybe they could take back the un necessary stuff and recycle it? One thing that I've noticed our 5th grade teachers doing is a monthly newsletter with all the important dates on it - this way we're not getting notices through the month for this and that. They've also started using half sheets for notices (of course this requires that someone sits and cuts them all in half). Maybe you could suggest some of these ideas to your school. Good Luck!

HI C.! You might want to suggest they set up a section on the school's website with detailed information about the activities and special days, and then send 1 newsletter home each month with each child with cursory info, and then taglines reading, "visit our website for more information". My mother is the computer admin at an elementary school and she's put something like this together. It sounds like each teacher or department is doing their own thing and sending their own papers home with their kids, when it would make more sense to get everyone together and compile the info into 1 sheet per month per child and the rest of the info on the internet. If you're on the PTA, you might be able to organize the parents into helping the school do this. It would save them so much money and paper!

You could suggest a monthly news letter to have all that stuff listed in reducing the paper to one a monthe, and/or it could be posted on the schools Website for folks to check events.

Hi C.,

Talk to his teachers. Good luck. D.

As a PTA officer, it's important to me that our school community is aware of events sponsored by the school/PTA and that parents feel welcome to participate.

I prefer website postings/email notices myself, but unfortunately not all of our school community has regular access to a computer. And not just a handful are without access: more than 60% of the students at my daughter's school qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

We update the school's sign with upcoming events, however more than half of our students are bused in from outside the immediate neighborhood...their parents aren't likely to be passing by the building.

There is a school phone-notice system, however our principal prefers to limit how and when it is used [a position I understand: there's a call from the school at which my husband nearly every week, and almost always during Sunday dinner!]. The PTA is unable to set up a phone tree because, frankly, there aren't enough parents willing to help with calling the homes of their children's classmates. Let alone bilingual parents...half of our kids come from non-English-speaking homes.

So, really, the flyers are something of a necessary evil. For many of our parents, there is no other way for us to communicate with them.