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Fayetteville High students expand composting, native-plant and rain-garden projects; district staff offer support
Summary
AP Environmental Science students and district staff described expanding sustainability projects — including compost pilots, invasive-removal native-planting and rain gardens — and asked for help with funding, maintenance and curriculum integration; teachers said student participation grew from ~17 to about 155.
Teachers from Fayetteville Public Schools presented a series of student-led sustainability projects to the Environmental Action Committee on Nov. 17 and asked for continued community support and collaboration.
Clayton (Clay) Wharton, an AP Environmental Science teacher, and Stephanie Jordan, the district garden coordinator, described multi-year work: school compost pilots (three schools brought online last year, three more this year), invasive-removal and native-plant installations (NoMo projects), a continuing McNair restoration site and a rain garden at Aspell funded by IRWP. Wharton said the projects are voluntary but provide students with project-management experience, professional interviewing and public presentations. "Sustainability could be the thing that gets kids excited about coming to school," he said.
Wharton and Jordan said the AP environmental program has grown from about 17 students when it began to roughly 155 students this year; they estimated about 30 students are participating directly in project work across five projects. The presenters credited district staff — including sustainability coordinator Justin Keane, Heather Elzey and deputy superintendent Dr. Williams — for support and said Leslie Merritt, the district director of science, has agreed to mentor student curriculum work so project lessons can be reused across classrooms.
Projects this year include a second-year compost rollout, a continued NoMo conversion of turf to native plantings, and a stormwater mitigation project that will involve engineers and the facilities director. Wharton said students also develop lesson plans and teach the material to younger students, with the goal that classroom teachers will retain and reuse the lessons.
Committee members and public participants praised the work, asked about scaling and maintenance, and suggested additions such as air-quality monitoring and basic artificial-intelligence instruction to support student projects; Darlington, a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering at the University of Arkansas, offered technical help for air-quality sensor work. Wharton and Jordan said they welcome volunteers, funding for maintenance and professional expertise to help sustain and scale the effort.
The EAC said it will coordinate with city staff to connect student volunteers to the CART outreach launch. No formal action or funding decision was made at the meeting; presenters requested continued collaboration and the committee asked for future updates.
