Climate Grades Are In … & Don’t Look Good

Class was in session for the Board of Education, and the assignment was to help save the earth.

A report card handed out by student-graders about the school board’s work on energy efficiency, reducing food waste and transportation emissions, and investing in a healthy and sustainable future looked pretty bleak: three C’s, one D, and an F.

The school board got those grades from the New Haven Climate Movement Monday afternoon at its latest hybrid full meeting hosted at Barack Obama School on Farnham Avenue. The student eco-activists handed delivered those grades during the meeting’s public comments period. 

The New Haven Climate Movement members who presented on Monday included Wilbur Cross senior Young In Kim and ESUMS juniors Leah Mock and Tenzin Youdon. 

The students have been requesting a progress report from the board as part of its September 2022 climate emergency resolution, which required the school board to give the public an update on its work this past March. 

The trio of students graded the school board based its work on the resolution’s eight carbon-footprint-reducing action points (which can be read in full at the bottom of this article) and on a required six-month update that never happened. 

For its work on the resolution’s energy efficiency-related action point, the students gave the board a C grade. 

“The Board of Education has been making progress toward energy efficiency and renewable energy, though it is not at a fast-enough pace,” Kim said. ​“The 2018 installation of solar panels at 11 schools, the ongoing process of replacing chill units at four schools, and the plan for a system-wide energy audit are all steps in the right direction. However, the Board of Education is not taking full advantage of the opportunity for energy efficiency and solar energy. They seem to be stretched thin for time and energy to devote to energy projects and they also seem to be lacking funding.” 

The students suggested the board can improve its grade by hiring a grant writer to apply for state and federal funds for energy efficiency and hire an education coordinator to plan and implement related projects. 

For its transportation carbon-reduction work, the board received another C, as the board members have ​“displayed difficulty focusing during ​‘class’ and is regularly zoned out during class discussions about reducing energy emissions from diesel-fueled school buses,” Kim said. 

“The history [of] apathy has negatively impacted those around them by polluting the air in New Haven and increasing the risk of asthma due to noxious emissions, especially for their more vulnerable peers,” he added. 

Kim continued, ​“When pulled out to discuss their behavior, the Board of Ed promised to do better in the future switching to electric school buses which reduce negative health and environmental risk of current school buses but as of now has not put their words into constructive action.”

To improve this grade the students suggested the board hire a transportation coordinator to be in charge of developing carpooling resources for New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) families, advancing bike education, coordinating a district wide safe routes to schools program, and providing free bus passes to students. 

Mock gave the board a third C for its work on climate education.

While the district follows state science standards of teaching climate change in science classes, ​“students report not being taught enough about climate change,” Mock said. 

“Curriculum supervisors have made some headway in writing new lesson plans but more work needs to be done to complete solid integration of public health and climate education into the schools,” Mock added. 

In 2021 the board received an A for approving the climate justice schools program, but ​“its lack of dedication to implementation of the program since then has lowered their grade significantly.” 

To improve the grade the students suggested a climate education coordinator be hired to oversee curriculum updates and run the climate justice school program. 

For a grade in reducing waste, the board received a D. 

“NHPS falls behind their peers in waste management strategies given its lack of a recycling program and tons of food waste,” Mock said. 

They did give the board an unofficial A for its willingness to address the issue of food waste with its recent conversations about composting and packaging waste in the board’s Food Service Task Force.

The students suggested the district follow through on its plans to donating food, composting, and recycling in school, as well as to launch an educational campaign to teach students and staff about proper recycling and composting. 

Youdon graded the board a D for its work with investing funding for the climate. 

“Despite a once in a generation opportunity to receives tens of millions of dollars from the federal government, New Haven Public Schools failed to allocate any of its millions of ESSER funds towards climate projects,” she said.

With the district’s partnership with ABM Industries’ Energy and Sustainability Manager Michelle Martinelli, the students said, ​“the district needs to put more staff time and energy to address this crisis” by hiring a permanent staffer. 

They suggested the board hire an energy coordinator, climate education coordinator, and a grant writer which would be ​“less than point 1 percent of the BOE’s budget” but ​“would have a high impact in proving the student academic performance.” 

Finally, the board received an F for its actions so far in investing in a safe and healthy future.

“Like many institutions the addiction to fossil fuels continues to damn children to a hot, chaotic, and impoverished future,” Youdon said. 

Despite passing the climate emergency resolution last year the students said, ​“the student this term failed to fully comprehend the subject matter as shown by the lack of funds in the 2023 – 2024 budget to address the climate emergency.” 

“We encourage that students consider what kind of world today first graders will face when graduating from high school in 2035,” Youdon added. 

The students concluded with a final push for the board to invest in the climate emergency resolution immediately. 

COO to Students: "You Have Been A Guiding Light"

At Monday’s meeting, NHPS Chief of Operations Thomas Lamb provided an update on the district’s work related to the climate resolution. 

Click here to view Lamb’s full presentation. 

Lamb and other board members thanked the climate movement students for their consistent work and dedication. Lamb said, ​“You have been a guiding light for me.” 

He added that the students keep him and his team on task. ​“We are encouraged by your comments and we will continue to engage with you to move this entire thing forward,” he said. 

Lamb reported that the district designated $2 million from its capital allotment for energy management tasks. 

Click here for a recent report shared at the board’s Citywide School Building and Stewardship committee about construction projects, safety and security systems, and energy management and sustainability. 

“This is very important part of the stewardship of our systems and how we move toward replacing our aging infrastructure,” Lamb said. 

Another $1 million dollars that has gone unspent in the past, Lamb said, will be added to the investment in energy management work. 

“With this coming fiscal year and the new capital budget cycle we’re gonna have a lot more resources to do a lot more work,” he said. 

For the district’s 2023 – 2024 transportation contract, which has yet to be approved, Lamb said ​“as we move to finalize a multi-year contract there will be bus electrification requirements that the contractor will work with the Board of Education to move this forward.” 

The district has also gotten one electric ​“E‑vehicle” that will be used by the food service department in a pilot to collect data on how more vehicles can be implemented to more district service departments. 

The facilities department recently applied for a grant to buy electric service vehicles but did not get approved for the funds. Lamb said he plans to apply to more opportunities to secure additional E‑vehicles.

“The goal would be to get as many of our service vehicles in our service fleet to transition to electric vehicles,” he said. 

Using capitol allotment funds Lamb’s department plans to do an energy audit to determine ​“what low hanging fruit and what systems are best able to be updates, replaced, or have new systems put in that will enable us to better manage our energy, use our energy, or put energy to better use with better system.”

The district is also working closely with United Illuminating (UI) to take part in their programs for them to do deep dives into the facilities’ energy usage and identify opportunities for system improvements, Lamb said. 

Click here to for more on the board’s conversations about food waste, composting plans, and an upcoming partnership with food rescue nonprofit Havens Harvest, which will distribute food to over 180 sites around the city. 

Lamb said with the Haven’s Harvest partnership, food donations will be tracked and weighed so the district can measure its impact. 

Lamb added that he hopes for the new food service director, once hired, to provide a new set of eyes for identifying how to operate ​“with a lens of climate improvement.” 

The district is also working to develop a recycling of glass and paper product program by partnering with the city’s public works department. The goal is for the program to be sustainable long term unlike in the past, Lamb said. 

“Currently we do not pay for our trash recycling, that’s done through the city, but if we choose to do a recycling program that operates outside of the single stream recycling, we will have to pay for it, so we will have to determine how we will do that,” he said. 

Board of Education secretary Edward Joyner pushed for the district to develop a policy around recycling and ecological initiatives to keep it accountable for this work. 

Fellow board member Darnell Goldson pushed for next steps in the resolution work to be gathering cost estimates, writing specific action plans, and creating benchmarks and goals for the initiative. 

“If we don’t pay now, we’re going to pay later,” Goldson said.