HCS educators and schools honored at the Hampton Clean City Commission’s 47th Annual Volunteer Recognition Event

The Hampton Clean City Commission recently celebrated the incredible work of Hampton City Schools educators and schools at its 47th Annual Volunteer Recognition Event held on October 23, 2025. Three outstanding teachers and three schools were recognized for their leadership, innovation, and dedication to environmental education and stewardship.

 

Innovative Educator - Michele Ferrel/Innovative School - Kilgore Gifted Center
Kilgore Gifted Center was recognized as an Innovative School, largely due to the vision and hard work of Innovative Educator, Michele Ferrel, and her students. Each year, Ferrel’s fourth graders embark on an exciting, yearlong environmental journey that brings science to life. Students raise trout and oysters while exploring the critical role water quality plays in sustaining life. Their journey takes them to Waynesboro, VA, where they release their trout at an environmental festival, and just down the street to the Hampton River, where they release their oysters after months of observation and data collection.

Ferrel also organizes Kilgore’s annual Environmental Fair—an inspiring event where students present independent research projects and engage with local environmental exhibitors. Her students lead litter cleanups, manage a cafeteria “food share” and compost station, manage the biweekly recycling program, and collect plastic bags for the TREX Challenge. Kilgore has earned a TREX bench for three consecutive years!

 

Beyond recycling, students nurture a vegetable garden, rain garden, and schoolyard habitat featuring a monarch way station and Bee City USA–certified pollinator garden. Ferrel’s commitment ensures her students don’t just learn about the environment—they live it.

 

Innovative Educator - Missy Powell-Riedl/Innovative School - Burbank Elementary School
Burbank was recognized as an Innovative School due to the monumental efforts by Innovative Educator recipient Missy Powell-Riedl. From the moment her kindergartners enter the classroom, Powell-Riedl immerses them in hands-on learning that builds environmental awareness and responsibility. Her students participate in litter cleanups, recycle paper and plastics, compost food scraps, and learn how small actions can make a big difference for the planet.

 

In the spring, students marvel at the life cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly and the vital role of pollinators that stop at their pollinator garden. They also raise oysters to understand how they improve water quality and sustain ecosystems. Last fall, Powell-Riedl’s young learners planted eight native trees and shrubs in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, adding beauty and improving the sustainability of their school grounds. She regularly takes her students on short nature hikes. “I like going on nature walks and finding leaves, pinecones, gumballs, tree branches, mushrooms and persimmons,” said one of her students, Jaren. Because of Powell-Riedl’s efforts she was selected to represent Hampton City Schools sustainability efforts this past summer at the All-American City Competition in Denver, CO.

Through these experiences and many others, Powell-Riedl instills a deep sense of stewardship—empowering Burbank students, even kindergartners, to see themselves as environmental leaders of the future: “My students are learning empathy, responsibility, and the powerful idea that even the smallest living thing—whether it’s a five-year-old or a humble oyster—can make a big difference.”

 

Kindergartner Nova said, ”I just want to clean the Earth, so the Earth won’t be dirty. I just want to pick up all the trash, then the Earth will be happy when it's clean.” Ulysses wholeheartedly agreed saying, “I love the Earth, and we help keep it clean.”

Innovative Educator - Matt Pohlman
Kecoughtan High School CTE teacher Matt Pohlman was honored as an Innovative Educator for his role in turning an idea into an enduring legacy. In collaboration with the Hampton Waterways Restoration Project, Peninsula Master Naturalists, Bluebird Gap Farm, 757 Makerspace, and the Governor’s STEM Academy for Architecture, Environment, and Engineering (AAEE), Pohlman and his CTE students created M.O.R.R.I.S., a large sea turtle sculpture built from plywood and plexiglass, to educate the public about littering. The name is an acronym that stands for:

• Making a commitment not to litter
• Organizing or joining a cleanup
• Reducing single-use plastics
• Recycling properly
• Informing yourself and others about the impact of litter
• Spreading the word

The project began as a project-based learning experience for the AAEE in 2022, and after several starts and stops it was completed and dedicated at the Bluebird Gap Farm Earth Day Celebration in April of 2025. The sculpture now greets the more than 200,000 annual visitors at the Farm and reminds them about the importance of keeping waterways clean. 

 

Innovative School - Kecoughtan High School

Guided by teacher Sally Lewis, Kecoughtan’s Ecology Club has been a driving force for environmental awareness for years. The club led a three-week Earth Month campaign last spring that featured environmental videos, posters, and hands-on beautification projects. Lewis and the club work with special education staff and students who manage the school’s recycling program, collecting recyclable materials from classrooms every other week. The club involved the entire school in the TREX Challenge resulting in the collection of over 1,000 pounds of plastic film—earning the school another bench. 

Students have cared for the school grounds through cleanups, planting wildflower seeds in the courtyards, and brightening the area by planting flowers in planter boxes near the science wing. The club, in conjunction with the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, participated in the Bluebird Gap Farm Earth Day celebration last April, engaging attendees with a seed planting activity. To celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15, 2025, students have produced four posters and five educational videos about recycling for posting around the school and for morning announcements, respectively. Through these efforts and others, Lewis and the Ecology Club ensure that sustainability remains a shared effort.

To get your school involved in environmental experiences, please consider joining the School Pride in Action subcommittee of the Hampton Clean City Commission. Contact Sally Lewis (salewis@hampton.k12.va.us) or Betsy McAllister (bmcallister@hampton.k12.va.us) for more information.