Demand for Enviroschools in the Waitaki district this year has outstripped supply for the sustainability in schools programme.
Waitaki was the only district in Otago not to support the national programme, until January when the Waitaki District Council put $25,000 from its waste minimisation reserve towards it.
Otago Enviroschools co-ordinator Robyn Zink said because of the high level of interest in the programme, expressions of interest for inclusion were being accepted until March 19. Only 12 schools could be included.
"A lot of schools and early childhood centres have shown an interest in joining the programme," she said.
"The selection of schools and early childhood centres will be based on a number of things including getting a good spread across the district and also having early childhood centres and schools that feed into each other.
"The other things we are looking for are strong support from the senior management and boards of trustees and an indication from the schools as to the sorts of things they would like to do around sustainability and how they see it being integrated into the life of the school."
Appointing a Waitaki facilitator was in "the very final stages" and schools would likely be told whether they would be included in the programme after Easter.
The programme could then be implemented immediately.
