At Bella Mente Montessori Academy in Vista, the students care for live chickens, tend a vegetable garden and dig up stumps to make way for an orchard. They fertilize the beds with chicken manure, and they set up compost.
Their projects are all student-led. And that means sometimes things go wrong — but that’s OK.
Once, when the students didn’t maintain the chicken coops properly, the chickens got out and ate all of the vegetables they were growing, said the charter school’s superintendent, Erin Feeley. The kids were devastated.
“This is what happens in life,” she said. “In life, you don’t have the perfect garden every day.”
Still, those and other sustainability projects helped get Bella Mente recognized last week by education leaders as one of just five K-12 institutions statewide given California’s highest Green Ribbon Award honor, recognizing its resource conservation, health promotion and environmental literacy.
Those five were deemed Green Achievers, the highest distinction. Another two dozen awardees — including schools, districts and county offices of education, two in San Diego County among them — got lesser honors.
“Our California Green Ribbon Schools exemplify the values of innovation, resiliency, and creativity that drive our efforts to make every school community a healthy and sustainable learning environment for our students,” state Superintendent Tony Thurmond wrote in a news release.
Bella Mente’s energy action plan promotes energy efficiency with student-led projects and infrastructure upgrades, which have included improved HVAC systems, solar panels and LED lighting.
The school has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions, energy costs and water use, thanks to conservation efforts such as xeriscaping, low-flow fixtures, and stormwater management.
The school also promotes more environmentally friendly transportation with its bike racks and carpool incentives, emphasizes environmental literacy and encourages physical and mental health through wellness initiatives, farm-to-table programs and Fit Fridays.
Feeley said the student-led nature of the projects is part of the school’s Montessori philosophy. But she recommends other traditional schools consider partnerships and more modest focuses.
For instance, students can start by working on one garden bed. “Because if you start in a manageable way, you can start to see who’s interested,” she said.
Bella Mente wasn’t the only local school or district honored by the state last week with a Green Ribbon Award for its efforts on environmental sustainability. National School District received a gold award, and Community Montessori in Escondido got a bronze award.
Originally Published: April 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM PDT
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