The LPS  Green School's Recognition Program is a friendly competition between school's throughout the district to receive a classification as either: Green, Greener, Greenest, or Top Elementary.  Based on points awarded for sustainable activities  and projects being completed at the school each year. 

Tree Campus schools exist to illuminate the beauty and benefits of trees for the next generation. By creating learning experiences in and out of the classroom for students.  This endorsement can be achieved annually and requires: the formation of a tree campus team, a school tree education plan, a hands on learning experience, and an Arbor Day Observance. 

EcoSchools U.S. certification represents environmental excellence for PK-12

schools in the United States. Participation in the program allows students,

teachers, school administrators, custodians, and parents to get a clear picture

of their current environmental practices and take action to reduce their

environmental footprint. Each year, schools apply for certification by undertaking environmental actions and then recording them in the online portal.

Launched in 2022 as a partnership between the National Wildlife Federation and Johnson Outdoors, the Clean Earth Challenge is making a difference in communities across America. School's and individuals are able to register and track the number of pieces of litter that they remove from their communities to add to the challenge total displayed online. 

Numerous organizations including The University of Nebraska Lincoln, The American Butterfly Association, Nebraska Game and Parks, and Monarch Watch  offer certification of pollinator gardens. We will annually seek certification for the Holmes pollinator garden as a pollinator habitat and as a Monarch butterfly way station. 

The produce garden at Holmes has a long standing history being run by students, staff, and the school's master gardener. Efforts are currently in the works to expand the existing garden to include more plants, trees, and shrubs to further educate and involve our community in produce gardening.  Connections  and informational signs to connect to the coming pollinator garden are also in the works. 

The pollinator garden is a project currently in the works for Holmes Elementary. With a tentative planting and dedication in the Fall of 2025. This garden will have host, nectar, and feeding plants for threatened and endangered pollinators through out Nebraska. There will also be  a dedicated learning space for students with informational signs, school art, and ways to study the connections between pollinators and plant growth. 

The Prickly Planet Protectors will be maintaining a  worm farm starting with 100 Red Wiggler worms. These worms will increase in number and  break down paper, coffee grounds, food scraps, and yard waste to help make nutrient rich soil for the school gardens. This composted soil will also be used to help grow plants for the produce garden before the planting season !

Students & families work together to clean and maintain the school courtyards. The school is currently undergoing efforts to raise funds to help  convert the schools largest courtyard into a functional outdoor classroom space. Which will serve all grade levels and subject areas.

Instead of sending spent markers, board markers, mechanical pencils, pens, and lids to the landfill  we now collect them for recycling.  Each reused box is of a different size so throughout the year multiple boxes will be sent to district office, but  with a varying  amount of gathering time needed based on the size of the box. 

Staff have invested in shade grown coffee from the Arbor Day Foundation. This coffee is shade grown, so farmers in South America plant the coffee underneath the trees instead of clearing the rainforest to farm. The foundation also plants a tree in a U.S. National forest for each bag of coffee purchased!