The Blue Valley School District is beginning to incorporate recycling programs into our school communities. All of our school sites have paper recycling bins on the schools' campuses. Some of our schools also have bins that accept all recyclable materials (not just paper). Some of our schools also accept clothing. The Blue Valley School District has created a district wide no idling/clean air policy for our busses and cars. Four to six signs have been placed on each school campus at the car pick up and drop off lines to promote no idling by parents' vehicles. We have encouraged parents at our schools to follow no idling practices and are promoting this by installing “no idling” signs in strategic locations along the parent pick up and drop off areas This was a student-initiated program that has now spread tot he entire Kansas City Metro area. The Blue Valley School District has been a test site for a joint study by the U.S. Department of Energy and UNLV to study the effects of indoor air quality and energy performance on the learning environment. The Blue Valley School District has been a test site for a joint study between Children’s’ Mercy Hospital and the University of Kansas School of Architecture on the effects of diesel bus emissions on student health and performance. The Blue Valley School District is an EPA grant recipient for diesel bus retrofits. Most of the busses in the fleet that serves our district are newer and meet the very tough new emissions standards established by the federal government. For the small number of busses that don’t meet the newer emissions standards, we are in the process of installing diesel oxidation catalysts to reduce diesel emissions by up to 80%. Our school district has also been awarded with the highest awards for indoor air quality by the EPA. In 2003, Blue Valley School District was awarded the EPA's IAQ Excellence Award. In 2005, Blue Valley School District was awarded the EPA's IAQ Sustained Excellence Award, the first school district in the nation to be recognized with this award. In 2006, the Blue Valley School District was awarded the EPA’s IAQ National Mentorship Award, again, the first school district in the nation to be recognized with this award. In 2007, the Blue Valley School District was awarded the EPA’s IAQ Sustained Mentorship Award, again, the first school district in the nation to be recognized with this award.