001Good evening. Uh, tonight is Tuesday, April 22nd. May I please get a motion to come back? Motion by Rory, seconded by John. All those in favor? 6. Great. So, welcome. We're um so excited tonight to have some of our sustainability committee members, our students, and our teachers here. and um and thank you so much for the sustainability fair. I'm sure we'll talk about it during board announcements, but before we get started, if we could please rise for the pledge of allegiance, that would be great. I to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So we are um looking forward to a presentation on our an update on our sustainability work in the district tonight. Um
002but before that we have some board announcements. I just wanted to I don't want to speak before my colleagues but I just wanted to recognize all the effort that our faculty and staff and students put forth to create the sustainability fair tonight. It was our fourth year doing it and it has grown every year and we moved into even a bigger space this year and it was just alive with engagement and joy and interest and it was really like I felt so proud tonight just being on the campus like every field had athletic events. The boys were playing tennis. There was lacrosse going on. There were kids jumping rope outside. It felt so like I know it's been spring since March, but today really felt like spring and alive and it was wonderful and the
003work that you're doing and inspiring our students to be able to take their own passions and put them into projects that are really interesting and engaging some of the research that our seniors and juniors are doing as part of science research. It's really amazing. So, thank you very much. It was truly a pleasure to be there tonight and looking forward to hearing the report. I don't know if anyone else any other board announcements. Sure. I'll just You want to go ahead Marley, please? Oh, thank you, Rory. I thought you said that beautifully and I echo your kind words and the synergy across departments too thinking about connections just for example and because tonight we also have students going off to Florida to compete at the national level in DECA but you know the synergy between
004marketing and earthrise and other interdisciplinary connections that are being made. It's just really fulfilling and rewarding and the the student involvement in this work started kind of small scale and now has really I'm sorry for the pun but taken root and to see such vibrant involvement at every level of the district is just so rewarding and such a testament to the commitment and leadership of so many people in this room and so thank you and go LSD congratulations and looking forward to the presentation. Oh, well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, but I do think it's important. So, I I took over the role of chair of the sustainability committee from Marjgery who led it before I did. Um and before that there were people like uh Mark the King and Steve
005Weism and many other people and Janet Harkham and many other people who really became sort of the foundation of the sustainability work at KSD many many years ago before it was popular to think about sustainability. So credit to them but credit to Mary Ford uh to you Julia to Melissa to the whole staff here. here. I mean, it's just so wonderful to see how engaged Jim Pans are, how engaged all these guys are and how passionate they are and how now that passion is really converting to the student body. And we had talked about it a few years ago like we really need to capture the mindsets of the students and it's happened. It's happening and it's happening and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year and with leadership of people like Austin
006uh Luke I don't see there uh non wheelen coming up in the ranks and we really just have such a wonderful set of student leaders who are driving this now and it's almost like their good work is overtaking what we thought was our good work around the campus and and you know it's expanding into the entire community and it's just so exciting and uh I I hope even though I'm departing on the board. I hope that I can stay on the sustainability committee if that works out. Um, and so I'm really just so excited. I can't but echo what you guys are saying, but I really have such passion around this stuff and the kids today were were super. One one exhibit was better than the next. I just I think it's phenomenal. Great. So,
007thank you guys. Thank you. And the only other thing I just want to um it's in the I guess I could do it during the consent agenda, but we are meeting on Tuesday night because tonight is the night that um all New York State public schools approve their Boseies. the um continuing education services budgets. So we meet on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays and we are really grateful to Boseis and we work in partnership with them around lots of different things throughout the district. We have students who utilize their services and um we just are really proud to have a great Northern Westchester Boseies is a really great example in the state of how Boseies can function and collaborate. So we um will be approving that budget tonight as part of our consent agenda and it
008happens to be Earth Day. So it is perfect. Yes. Okay. And with that we can go to our first presentation. So thank you. Great. So I'll go ahead and just start off very quickly and I guess if our teammates can join us that'd be great. All right. J and Mike and Jim and Melissa. Um so as our group comes up here so just board as a reminder that looking at this year is a transition year for us from kind of our what was our previous mission and vision work and then now what we've identified our kind of our pillars and looking at that. So we'll see that tonight you'll see a little bit of a blend of both those but sustainability here and as you may recall the sustainability and global citizenship is that kind
009of refresh pillar that we'll be seeing for next year and things but I'll go ahead and hand it over to Julie as she Thank you Julia. Yeah, thank you. And thank you all for your kind words. I'm so happy tonight because everybody here is a real partner and a teammate and I I'm so grateful to you and to the students in the back. It's been so fun working with you, having you as part of our sustainability and our schools committee. Um and you are making all of us better. So, thank you so much. Um tonight's presentation um begins with well as a conversation. So, I do want to make sure everybody has a chance to introduce themselves to you so you know who's around our table. So, Melissa, do you want to start? Sure. Hi.
010Uh, I'm Melissa Brady. Uh, it's a pleasure to be here again and to continue in this role. I, um, an instructional coach at the middle school and throughout the district do a lot of sustainability coordination work. Um, adviser to the middle school green team and me ponds green team as well. Thank you. I'm Jim Panzer and I teach physics here at the high school for 20 something years and also earth science for the last three years and uh I'm also the district uh sustainability curriculum integration adviser or leader for for grades 6 through 12 and I'm also a parent in the district of my little girl who had a presentation in the thing earlier. She did very well. Yes. Hi Jane Em, fourth grade teacher over at Increase Miller. Um I'm the elementary sustainability integration
011leader and I'm also an adviser for uh green team over at Increoy, director of facilities. I participate in the sustainability team work with our architects, engineers to continue these efforts and help facilitate the process. Thanks so much. It really is a partnership. I get to work really closely with Lisa and the board sustainability committee, but also thank you in advance and for everything you've already done. The facilities department has partnered a lot with us and non can you'll hear in the video can attest to the fact that all the data that demonstrates all of our effectiveness has to come from somewhere and so thank you guys so much for all your help with that. So we'll just begin. And I know it's a little small um uh for you to see, but the commitment that
012is highlighted there is something from our website and really it talks about equipping learners with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to address complex environmental challenges. Um and one example of how we do that is each school in the district has a garden which is tended um by various people including our very own Melissa there in the in the right hand side. I believe I took that beautiful picture at KES one day when you were doing an salad dressing emulsification science experiment. That is right. I do not tend that garden just to be fair. Margie Corsella does, but I we were using the greens that she had grown. Wonderful. And this team has also been instrumental in helping us um implement year one of our three-year sustainability plan, which we introduced to you last year. Um
013and I could tell you a few of the highlights there, but really was a team effort. Our whole sustainability committee team um participated. And so you'll see the blue represents data and transparency. The orange is leadership, organization, and communication. And the darker orange is educational programs. So just some samples of the things that we've accomplished this year. We launched a student survey to track sustainability awareness in the elementary schools. We piloted star and eoschool platforms to begin a structured data collection. You'll hear more about that in a minute. We've developed a student ambassador model in the middle school and the high school. We saw growth in teacher-led sustainability efforts across disciplines. We planned tonight's beautiful sustainability showcase. We mapped community-based partnerships with an environmental surrounding survey. And we administered a survey that collected evidence of
014integration of sustainability in various uh departments like science, economics, and design. You've heard about marketing also. Gender PAL has been a tremendous partner. And we've used community reads to ground sustainability themes schoolwide. Jim is another example of that. and we've compiled a district-wide sustainability snapshot from existing work that we are going to use as a foundation to our curriculum mapping efforts which are to come. So this is some of a sn a little bit of a snapshot of year one and then um the next page starts with a by the numbers graphic and you'll remember these are last year's numbers. So I'm very excited to say that they're not um that they're only improved from there. Um, and we have a tremendous showing as far as green teams, student involvement, awards, etc. And below that
015are some of our green teams. I know all of our the people that are here with me tonight have been involved in green teams. And you might remember the podcasting uh station from last year's sustainability showcase. Um, right there, the picture with Quan. So Rich, if you're if you can hear me, can you play just a audio sample of that of a podcast from our Kes team, please? And thank you. [Music] Can you get a little louder, please? Hi, we're the KS Green team. Hello, I'm Nina. And I'm Alexandra. And today on episode 4, we are the transportation and fossil fuel department of the KS Green Team. Don't worry, we won't bore you to this at least. Anyways, today we are going to be talking about greenhouse gases and how transportation affects them and how
016we as human affect them too. Anyway, let's cut to the action. I'm going to it continues. It's very sweet. Thank Thank you, Rich, if you don't mind taking us back to our presentation. And I'll I'll ask Jane if you can tell us a little bit about Wastefree Wednesdays, which is a great initiative that you started at increase. Sure. So, the green team, you know, we uh when we meet, we talk about a lot of different things that we want to do and they have so many ideas and uh so little time. Um but one of the things that we continue to talk about is reducing waste. So um we talked and we kind of I have a motto like we um we learn and then we plan and then we act. So we studied the
017different forms of waste that happen in our school. And one of the biggest problems is our cafeteria, you know, where a lot of waste is um created. So we started a campaign and we decided we wanted to challenge every um student in our building to have a waste-free Wednesday on a particular Wednesday on in March. And so we created these forms and students went home, they talked to their parents, they planned out what they wanted to eat the next that Wednesday for a snack and for lunch and how they were going to package it and what they needed to bring home as their responsibility to reuse. So we um students created videos and it was on our morning announcements. there was signage all over the building and we had a huge um turnout for that
018and so we started doing it every Wednesday and by June this year we're hoping to do it every day but um it was very exciting um and we did reduce the waste our according to our custodian who's been tracking our garbage on Wednesdays and then teachers started tracking their garbage in their classrooms and their waste in their um you know through snack that happens in the classroom so um it's really exciting and students got little eagle eye stickers, you know, for their um participation and yes, it was really exciting and fun. Thank you. And I know Lisa and and Mike will talk later about more to do with waste uh free Wednesdays, but thank thank you for that. Jim, I mentioned the community reads, but we kind of skimmed right over. Do you want to
019talk a little bit about those? Well, so yeah, last summer they there was two uh books cho chosen for the community reads that were specifically targeting uh you know with themes of s sustainability and there was two chosen at the high school level because at the high school level you have freshman and sophomores that might be a different reading level than juniors and seniors but both were both were heavily uh sustainability themed. Um and we kicked them off with a tree planting ceremony um at in front of the high school um where people came and you know we it was a six-foot tree we got donated from Gossets Nursery and they they put it in it was like a hopeful kind of celebration um you know something like that cuz when you plant a tree
020you're like you're not you are not really doing it for yourself it's for the future generations and like you know science classes took part of it for um carbon sequestration and the English department um were were heavily involved in because of the the nature of the community reads were you know was really spearheaded by them. Uh but yeah marketing got involved. So in terms of uh in terms of like a that was just the kickoff of the event but in terms of like a multi-aceted way of getting more curriculum you know more disciplines in with sustainability as you saw tonight like there's so much there uh sustainability is such a great lever to pull to get student engagement in general because these students are passionate about it. Um, and so when you can tap into
021their passion and get them to really learn something, uh, that has, you know, because they're they want to learn about it, then you're, you know, you're really speaking the language they need to hear. Thank you, Jim. And speaking of student passion, I know Melissa, you wanted to talk a little bit about the Meadow Project at the middle school. Oh, I'd love to. Um, I think many of you stopped by that booth today. Thank you. Um, so we have a green team at the middle school. We're and as well we've also been doing some curriculum work around healthy habitats and ecosystems in sixth grade and um so it's really nice to be able to see this come together. So two of the students that are eighth graders now they've been on the middle school green team
022and started at the elementary school. So that's one of the wonderful things about having a green team at every level is the kids continue to um follow through with the things that they care about and get more mature and do bigger things. So, these two students um really wanted to take action. Our green team was responsible for, thank you to Lisa, switching out the plastic cups for compostable paper cups. Um and so they really liked the idea of seeing change. And so what they want to do is turn some of our turf lawn, which doesn't have a lot of environmental benefits, into um a meadow that would provide a biodiverse habitat and attract pollinators and birds to the middle school campus. So, they've been working on that plan for a while, looking for the proper
023location and um getting approval from the stakeholders that they need to, you know, speak with. Um and so our principal is behind it and Mike has been very supportive with all of our questions. And um so tonight was their night to kind of launch their project and ask for volunteers and um they're selling plant plugs so that they can have the the materials that they need. and we have parent volunteers helping and students and um it's really it's really exciting where I think what's going to be great is you're going to walk in the middle school and at our new entrance that they're constructing it'll be right in front of you and it's glass and so you'll see into this lovely meadow and we can do educational um signage on the glass and I'm thinking
024it would be a great place for kids to collect data for math or science or um there could be you know a curiosity station a notice and wondering station and I think that the location right in the hallway will really be engaging for the students in the school and will spark good conversations and maybe some lessons beyond. So it's really wonderful stuff and those those are all of the green team like some examples of green team efforts but then we also have a short experiences for all that we're excited about and uh Jane can talk a little bit more about the earth chat slides that we started this year. Jane do you mind? Sure. Uh so there was I had a okay how do I start? Okay. Um there was a real deliberate effort to
025bring everyone into the initiative for sustainability. So um we already have some themes that are across the different elementary schools um for like social emotional learning, you know, themes like friendship and kindness and responsibility. So it seemed to just make sense to sort of tie in with some of the pre-existing themes. So I created these uh slides that are now integrated with the morning meeting announcements. So um and they were also shared with the other elementary schools. So every student when they have their morning meeting and listen to the morning announcements and they hear about you know this the day the schedule of the day and all those other kinds of things they also have a sustainability um integration connection. And so um part of that is some terms might be presented for students like
026the term of sustainability even to kindergarteners and first graders you know uh terms like climate and equity and things like that are introduced and defined and examples are given and then there's a suggested earth chat for teachers to follow up with. after the morning announcement they will have their morning meeting and they will integrate and by having an earth chat about the um the topic that was presented in the morning. So I think that's a great way to bring everyone into the idea and kind of start from our youngest students so that it's not just something they hear you know a few times a year or in April you know it becomes part of their uh everyday life in the classroom. It's a nice job of integrating it very authentically. Thank. And so another example
027of integration is the next video. Rich, if you don't mind playing that, this is a sustainability a sustainable community um based on the characteristics of urban, suburban, and rural communities at the children in second grade meadow pond. Hello everyone. Welcome to our rural community known as Animal Fields. Can you raise Amber, Ava, and Villmore? We are so excited to show you why Animal Fields is the best place to live, work, and play. First, let's talk about the wonderful places to live in our community. You can find cozy houses with barns for the animals. Each home is surrounded by beautiful trees, large fields, gardens, and crops. Now, let's take a look at where you can work. Animal Fields has lots of great jobs. You could work on the farm, in a school, at a farmers market,
028or at a town store. And guess what? Maybe people in our community can even walk or bike to work. That's great for staying healthy and keeping our air clean. However, you would need a car if you needed to travel outside of town. When it's time to have fun, there's no better place than Animal Fields. We have awesome places to play like our playgrounds, open fields, and backyards. One of the coolest things about Animal Fields is how we take care of our planet. We have wind turbines, fields of crops, and recycling, and a recycling program, and compost. We all work together to keep our community green and clean. It's our way of helping our planet stay healthy. So, if you're looking for a place that's perfect for living, working, and playing, you care about taking care
029of the earth, then Animal Fields is the place for you. Come join us in Animal Fields. We can't wait to welcome you. Thank you for watching our infomercial about our wonderful community. We hope to see you soon in Animal Fields. Super proud of them. Thank you. Um some of some more assured experiences that we have uh come in the form of our amplify science program which you've heard a lot about in grades K to five. They topics include how humans change the environment to meet their needs, biomimicry, building a model using nature to help solve a human problem, erosion, changing land forms, strategies to support ecosystem balance, rock formations, the role of ecologists in protecting the earth's ecosystems. So there's some really rich science learning happening for all K to5. And then our library media
030specialists have done a really intentional and excellent job of integrating stream science, technology, research, engineering, art, and math. It gets a new letter every time um every year I feel like. But in integrating stream and sustainability, you see some really cool examples in these pictures. Building wind turbines, working on water filters, building a colony on Mars with recycled materials. So there's a lot of really um awesome opportunities there. And uh then you see on some examples of our secondary work in grades six, seven, and eight. And I can have um Jim lends a hand on that. Right after Rich, may you play the next video, please? Grade eight employs the science and engineering practice of asking questions and defining problems to examine global climate change. In doing this unit, I learned kind of exactly how
031uh greenhouse gases like contribute to global warming and kind of like what they do and how they get into our atmosphere and like just like where they come from and kind of how we contribute to that. What we focused on is like you know the greater the carbon emissions the you know CO2 with its heat trapping property infrared radiation radiates from the earth terrestrial radiation and it was a lot of kind of like the science foundation to then when you're trying to make a solution you have science knowledge and then evidence if people are asking you like okay why would that even work you know you have what is necessary to create a thoughtful um solution. But I think that this unit was really important because like it taught us like that's hard to hear.
032I'm sorry Rich. I don't know if you can at all should go through a unit like this if they haven't already because it teaches you like the reality and what's actually happening and then like you as an individual can then can then think of like okay what can I do or what ideas do I have I can fix the problem and if everyone thinks like that then a solution is bound to like so I know you can't really hear but what I can attest to because I was speaking with two of them at the showcase case a few moments ago. They are extremely passionate about the topic and excited to share what they know about it. Um, anything that you wanted to add about? Actually, I'll defer to Melissa. She's like boots on the ground,
033resident expert of all things middle school. For sure. Thank you. Um, so that was an environmental that is an earth science class and the students are learning about as they said the the whole carbon cycle process there and as you know um the science standards do include sustainability standards and so that is in Zach Miller's class and they're doing a wonderful job doing they look at a phenomenon they unpack it they learn to you know really understand what's happening in in the situation and then create like a claim and evidence statement. Um the sixth grade I can talk a little bit about those sixth grade projects that you see. Um so because this is a nice interdisciplinary example. Um this is from last year our sixth grade one of our sixth grade math teachers had
034the students using their geometry skills to design a backyard. So their design brief was to work for a couple who wanted um a backyard dream backyard. And so they had a budget and they had to use um all their geometry skills and their math skills for calculation to plot out this backyard. And um I guess I've been making a lot of noise about sustainability. So she said, "Can we integrate sustainability?" And we decided that the yard would be a healthy habitat. And so the students were then tasked to create a backyard that would incorporate pollinators and birds and trees that would support a biodiverse um ecosystem. So that we did that last year and this year the ELA teacher that works on that team has decided to do herformational writing unit, research and writing unit
035because they share students and so the students are going to research um the creatures that live in that healthy habitat. So they'll either research birds or insects or reptiles and amphibians or mammals. And then um we think that they're going to be really inspired to create a very beautiful backyard habitat because they care about the creatures. So they're doing their non-fiction research and writing. Um and they're learning all about the whole it it just grew and expanded to so many different concepts from science to math to to writing to reading. Um using reputable sources, the whole gamut and so we're pretty excited about that one. Um so that's in sixth grade. Thank you. and wonderful. And I got a little bit ahead of myself with the high school. So, thank you, Jim. What we're what
036you see next is um a snapshot of our start dashboard. And that is the where how we're beginning to collect like structured data regarding all of our accomplishments thus far. We're the first school in a public school in New York State to be using this. There was a bit of a learning curve. And again, shout out to GenderPal the marketing and non Whan. Thank you for taking this project on and trying something um that's like new and different yet something we can celebrate and really uh hang our hat on. So, thank you. It's an educational platform. It measures and you'll hear this in the video in just a moment, educational programs, organiz organizational culture and physical place. And you're able to um connect blue ribbon dimensions as well as this UN sustainability goals to each
037of those accomplishments. and all of which would position us really nicely for a green ribbon award which is another one of our goals. So um I will let the video do the talking now. So Rich if you don't mind playing the next video. Thank you. Start dashboard is a way for our school to this uh to see how sustainable we are. There's three different topics. So there's like education um sort of like the ground so like physical and then like organizational. So there can be stuff with like teaching sustainability to grounds works and landscaping and cafeteria food waste. We have meatless Mondays in our cafeterias. We have like sustainable silverware and composting. We also have sustainability club and club and we just donated money to UNICEF triple C. So we're offsetting carbon emissions in China.
038I think John J does a lot. I'm part of the district sustainability committee, so I see a lot of the behind the scenes. So, I know there's a lot of work that has been done and then there's also a lot of work to do. So, I'm proud of what John has done. Yeah. Thank you. And we're very proud to have you on our committee, too. Thank you. Um and and while we're thanking people again, thank you to Lisa and Mike who were real partners in our acquisition of the data um that we would gathered in order to uh give ourselves credit for all the great work that we have done thus far. Um and then we'll just wrap with a couple more examples. At the high school level with economics and social studies students, we're
039developing an even uh deeper relationship with Grace Farms, which we're excited about as well. Um, and so I just want to give my team any chance to say anything you haven't been able to say yet before I turn it over to Lisa. Yeah, I just wanted to, you know, if it wasn't already painfully obvious by the the number of students that presented in the thing that we had prior to this, uh, it's it's also a testament to teachers because it nowadays teachers come to me more often with with like, hey, have you heard about this resource about climate change? I'm like, actually that one I haven't tell. And like that has started to happen more organically where teachers are taking up the the sustainability charge like using they they understand how important it is for
040our students and for the future of the world and all that and really just as a as a as an educational tool. Um and then uh it's also nice to see that a lot of teachers are wrapping in equity issues of equity with sustainability because they are intricately connected and um you know if a student is not you know quite there on like the going green but is quite there on issues of equity there's something for everybody there. So it's coming up uh much more often. It's more it's not like oh and we have to do sustainability. No, it's like no, of course, of course we do sustainability and and we have to do the other things, you know, like not not not equity of course and we have to do equity and you know
041and we have to do our regular curriculum what it is, you know, we have to do the quadratic equation and sustainability, you know, it's like of course. So, I just want yeah, I just wanted to mention that like there's a lot of teachers behind the scenes doing a lot of work um for for the benefit of our students and it's really showed tonight. So many students with in science research that had sustainability uh focus for years and they're they're they had they had our uh they used our sustainability event as like a practice session for when they really uh go in front of judges that are going to judge them for uh you know grade them. So uh it's just really great to see just really proud to work here. All those teachers are also
042on our sustainability committee. So it was really great to Yes. is there are yeah like ginger pa if I go down a list of names I'll forget one so I'll put that but yeah there are some on our sustainability committee but there's also just some that are just doing the work and not not looking for credit for it they're just like yeah no I'm just doing this work and that's just how it is and how it's supposed to be and like so shout out to those teachers that want to remain nameless that's right there you go thank you very much Lisa um thank you thank you everyone for being here tonight and we are uh Mike and I are pleased to present about our district's sustainability initiatives and our buildings, our grounds and transportation as
043well as our food service program. Um, both those that are already underway as well as those that are planned for this school year, the 2425 school year. These initiatives reflect our commitment to environmental responsibility, operational efficiencies, as well as enriching student learning. So, I'm going to turn over to Mike who's going to speak about our buildings and grounds and facilities. Okie dokie. Um, okay. Okay, first and foremost, Katona Lewis World is investing in significant infra infrastructure improvements. Uh they're directly aimed at reducing our environmental footprint. Um this is a pivotal role. Um projects currently underway and um we we have one big one that everybody I think is keeping a close eye on. That's the I don't know if that's me. I think you want to pull a little closer to you. It it wants
044Yeah, just pull closer to yourself. Is that what the problem is? Yeah. I don't know much about audio. They usually don't give me one of these on, so I'm pretty surprised it's on my I think I got a hot mic. Yeah, sorry about that. No worries. Okay. Uh so the geothermal project at Katon Elementary School um happy to report things are moving along and um the the most important thing to know about this is this system um geo thermal well system will not only decrease the reliance of fossil fuels for the uh heating system at Katona but it'll introduce air conditioning for the entire building. uh this will enhance the student comfort and um sustainability simultaneously and the occupant experience is really important in buildings. Um so also in a pursuit of strategic energy management
045we're exploring an energy performance contract. We always say EPC. So that um just to explain uh this one specifically would be designed to equip every school roof with solar panels, photovotayaic solar panels. Um this is a a very ambitious initiative and it's aimed to build a system with a capacity upwards around 2,300 kilowatts which annually could generate 2.3 to 3 million kW. Um this is a move that promises substantially substantial energy cost reductions throughout the district. And to put that in perspective, um our average was about 4.3 million kW. So you're looking at potential, you know, infusion of 50% or so of our own uh sustainable electricity. Um, another portion here is waste management, which you touched on, which what was it? What what Wednesday? Waste free. Waste free Wednesday. Um, that's great because, you
046know, our custodians do monitor the composting and to have George uh give a little compliment, that's great. Um, waste management remains a cornerstone of our sustainability efforts. Thank you, Jane. Across all cafeterias, we've implemented comprehensive recycling and composting practices. Uh we've transitioned to compostable trays, utensils, um and we ensure that our waste is managed in an environmentally responsible manner aligning with um circular economy principles. Mike, is there anything else you want to add about buildings and grounds? I think that we're just focusing on this year. I mean there's so much work you will see um in the next the subsequent pages what has been done over the last 20 or so years as well as what was going forward if you um but we just were we just were touching on the work of this
047school year. So yeah internal workings there's always going to be software driven energy savings which uh Dr. Blanch is helping me out um with uh ideas there and um working with our teachers. Uh f I just think of Dr. Linda Burke and and her tenure and what she offered up was energy for sustainability. I see this this same thing happening now. So, uh it's nice to see it all explained by many teachers and um kind of feels like like Jim was expressing things are moving along pretty well. Um, just so I'll also touch on, you know, as part of our district initiatives, um, we believe in hands-on learning, um, that is why we're constructing a greenhouse, which is, I believe, was supposed to begin over break. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Um, constructing a greenhouse adjacent to
048the middle school family consumer science classrooms. Here students will germinate and cultivate, harvest and prepare their very own food they grow there, gaining firsthand experience in agriculture, nutrition as well as resource conservation, fostering a deeper understanding of sustainability among our students. Um, further we continue to invest in sustainable transportation office options as as we have already spoke about. Um we have are proud that we will be adding uh six electric buses the electric micro buses to our fleet. One which we ordered last school year which is um still you know still waiting for arrival and then five four buses that were just recently approved that will be ordered once we know the timeline for the installation of our chargers. So, speaking of those chargers, um we are installing um eight in uh eight chargers, EV
049chargers at the high school as well as eight EV chargers at the middle school. They will be commuter car chargers. That means that our staff, our students, as well as um members of our community at, you know, at their own cost can use the chargers to charge their electric vehicles. Currently, since um our electrical capacity needs to be we need to um improve or you know upgrade it. We will be using the chargers at the high school, we're going to convert them to charge the six micro buses. That's actually been part of the reason we've delayed on purchasing the buses is to simply we do not have the electrical capacity. And as I'm sure everyone knows, that's a part of our a request that we have for the next school year's budget is to use
050excess funds in the current school year to begin to work, you know, to begin to do that work as far as upgrading our electrical capacity as we continue to transition to electric school uh fleet as well as our on&m um fleet as well. So just overall um and also it's interesting on talking about the composting. I know some of my colleagues regionally in within our region are just getting interested in composting and you know and were did they were asking questions that a survey and I sent a note to one of my colleagues and I said well you should reach out to my colleague Mike Lavoy because we've had composting here for quite a number of years and they so um Mike you know has spoken with them as far as explaining how we have
051that incorporated in our in our waste management um program here. So it oh um yes thank you. So again, you can see here um this timeline uh I believe Rory actually developed that you know going back to the start in 2005 when um KLSD established their principles and in the subsequent year when the wellness committee actually created the sub the subcommittee for sustainability and the goals that have been set over the years and and reached those goals over the years. Our most recent goal set by the board of education is to reach um is to see 85% reduction in our greenhouse gas um by 2040 and our data shows that if we don't hit those numbers like this school year we will be hitting them in very you know in the short term prior to
0522040. So we're continuing to drill down in that data just to because we want to ensure it's accurate as possible. But you know over the years we've 2021 switching over to LED lights EPC first EPC about 12 years ago. Um but it's just been um you know water filling stations something that um was installed in 2014 where many districts still today don't have these water filler stations. Uh so it is you know the work has been done here has truly been um just really well ahead of its time. And so and then on the following pages then you'll see our you know what we're looking for going forward and um our goals for going forward again the 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 which we're very close to hitting as well as you
053know reducing our boilers as they reach end of life because we don't want to create more waste but as they reach end of life replacing them with more sustainable options and you know of course our first um pilot with the geothermal the ground source heat pump programs at um K. Yes. So, it's important to note too that uh in advance of eliminating elimin eliminating I'm sorry, I'm tripping over my tongue. Eliminating the boilers at the end of their useful life is we're we're cutting down on their consumption of fuels through the use of air source heat pumps and that's gradually happening uh in all the schools. So, I'm sorry. No, that's Thank you for adding that. That's interesting because actually one of the presentations was about I'm not sure if they're here tonight's one of
054our students has at the end of their their life um we we want to render them useless you know in every way we can and I think we're we're going to get there though. Very excellent. So, in conclusion, um these initiatives, you know, epitomize Kona um Lewisboro School District's dedication to sustainability across all of our operational facets. And as Melissa mentioned, I mean, it's like it goes for, you know, our cups that we purchased. And, you know, there's all these pieces, a little pieces that, you know, we didn't mention here today. and Meatless Monday which you know um um Austin and Luke you know approached me I think about a year and a half ago and we started talking about that and coming they were they attended our food service and wellness meetings and presented
055to us and everything. So there's all this work in all the different operational departments that we um work on that not only promises environmental benefits also cost-saving benefits that as well as providing invaluable learning experiences for our students preparing them to be conscientious as global citizens. So thank you. Thanks. That was pretty awesome. So um one of one of the things again I as I was going through thinking it's been 20 years now since 2005 here when the uh district established those sustainability principles and I can only imagine how the folks at that point in time if we could kind of teleport them to our list right now would be pretty much in awe with I think the short presentation we heard today uh from and saw earlier this evening from our students and things.
056So I think that um I think maybe Jim spoke a little bit I think everybody did that the idea of sustainability is it's a way of being. It's not like, oh, I'm going to do this. This is kind of new. It's it's really very much a way of being. And if you had a chance to go out beforehand and see from our students, it is something that now is in the way of our thoughts and our thinking of how we approach our learning, how we approach our thinking, how we approach how we have a responsibility to each other and to our planet. And that certainly started 20 years ago very clearly with that standpoint. And it continues to this day forward. And so, um, it was, it really hit me tonight when I actually did
057really well on the compost puzzle. I don't know if anybody else did that, but I did pretty I didn't get a lot of, you know, a lot, but I didn't get any wrong. I actually got one kind of wrong, but it was a mistake on my part. But to to have and then to have the conversation with the kids tonight, you you got to sense so it was coming from passion. It wasn't coming from I must do, I have to this kind of thing. It was it was from passion. With passion, who knows what's going to happen to us next. So again, uh commend all of our teachers and our family here tonight as well as those are in our classrooms and making a living piece we saw tonight from the littlest children to our
058oldest kids and so just a sampling of the students involved in that. So uh we should and I am certainly proud of our community. So very well. Thank you every thanks to the students again earlier. So thank you. Thank you. [Applause] All right. Thanks guys. We'll let you step away there. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Mike. Thank you. Have a good night. So, this takes us to 8.02, 2, which is a conversation about the updated district special education plan, which we're hoping to present at a future meeting for approval by the board of education. So, we'll have that in the next couple of weeks. So, tonight and Alex, if you want to jump in here, just let me know if I missed anything. But basically much more streamlined than what it was before
059and I think updated to identify our key um new programs really just in the last few years that are in there. Those are the two pieces that really those are the major shifts. Um, you know, so there there's a lot that's just regulatory that has to be included in a in a plan. Um, and we were able to really look at um what were the key components? How we could we format it in a way where it was easy to access, streamlined, and easy to update. And I think that that's um really like you said the two more significant changes. But um we anticipate having that on the ETH. Great. Thanks, Alex. Yep. We'll should have that on the ETH this week. Thanks everybody. Thank you Jo. Thank you. Okay. So we look forward to
060seeing that. This takes us to item 9.01 which is an opportunity for public forum. And I know we have one person who has signed up to speak. Um and no. Oh okay. You signed in though. Uh uh so there's no one else signed up. So with that I will close public for quum. Um and that brings us to the consent agenda. And um as I've said in a few meetings so far, there are over the course of the um spring, we do see retirements that are part of the consent agenda and we're not acknowledging each retirement individually. We have a wonderful board meeting in June where we do acknowledge, but just um you we're very fortunate to have a lot of long-standing professionals in the district and we wish all of them the best in
061their retirement. Look forward to celebrating them in June. And with that, would someone like to move the consent agenda? Moved by Rory, seconded by Bill. All those in favor? 6. And I would like to um recognize a gift. So this is a um resolution to accept a gift from Joseph and Carrie Synindelar. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Um, this is a monetary donation of $1,000 for the class of 1977 scholarship. So, we've been seeing these at the last few board meetings. So, thank you for that very generous gift. Um, I'd like to move the resolution. Um, someone could second it. Seconded by Marjorie. All those in favor 6. So, thank you very much to Joseph and Carrie Cindler for their donation. And now, um, we have an opportunity for any board dialogue or discussion. if
062anyone has anything. I say this every time I see this 1977 thing come up. I think it's awesome that those guys are contributing to John J. High School and I think that there was a class now it's just Joseph and Carrie who are contributing $1,000. It's just such a generous gift and I just think it's great that community members who already graduated in 1977 from John Day are still contributing to the district. I think it's awesome. So, thank you. Excellent. Uh, and I did want to wish our students good luck and Marjorie mentioned it before, but we did approve a trip for um some students who are in competing nationally with DECA. It's really exciting. It's a new initiative this year and we're doing really well. So, congratulations to them and best of luck to
063them. So, Julia, I think before our next board meeting, our seniors head off to their internships and the classes will be a little quieter. Is that right? Am I right about that? I think we have one one more after that. Okay. I just want to wish them well. I mean, that's such a a milestone in young people's lives to head off on their internships. Yes. It's so exciting, but I'll hold myself. Great. Excellent. Great. So, that takes us to item um 17.01, which is future meetings. So, um we have um tomorrow a policy committee meeting uh tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. in the district office. On Thursday, May 1st, we have an audit committee meeting in the district office at 7 p.m. And then Friday morning, uh the next Friday, so that same Friday, we
064have an 8:15 a.m. sustainability committee meeting at the district office on Friday, May 2nd. Our next board of education meeting is Thursday, May 8th, here in the library. Um and then um in advance of the upcoming board and um board vote and election of board members, Kim is very gracious and hosts a special voter registration day. So, Saturday, May 10th, the district office will be open for anyone who wants to register and can vote um in that in our um upcoming election and budget vote. So that's Saturday, May 10th, here in the district office from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. And then on Wednesday, May 14th, the finance committee will meet in the district office at 700 p.m. And then on May 20th, we will have our um polls opening at 6:00 a.m. They'll be
065open till 9:00 p.m. for the annual budget vote and election. And those will be at the elementary schools, the three elementary schools, Katona, Increase Miller, and Meadow Pond. So check in about where you should go to vote if you aren't um certain with um previous Lewisboro residents where to go vote. And then Thursday, May 22nd, we have our board of education meeting here in the library at 7:30 followed by the next day a policy committee meeting on Friday, May 30th. And John, can you remind me when the um where the candidate night from the uh PTO's is? What night that is? May. Yeah. Is that correct? Okay. So, and May 5th, it's uh Monday. It's a Monday. Oh, all right. Okay. So, stay tuned and watch your PTO newsletters, your e newsletters from the PTO's.
066Um, generally, parent council does host a candidate night for the three candidates who are running. Um, so they may be doing something different this year, but it's an opportunity to get to hear from your candidates and I will turn it over to you Ray to close. I think that was it. Again, I just I know you've gone through this sustainability fair stuff. That was that was really wonderful. That was really great. It was really just to see the little ones to the kids in the middle school to the high school, the connectivity there. And again coming from them themselves and their passion might ask questions, why were you interested in this? And it's coming from them. It's not like, oh, cuz I had to. So, it's always a it's a love to see kids when
067they're fired up like that. So, so thank you. Great. Thanks. Excellent. Ian, we only have you for a few more meetings. So, um, and with that, um, would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? Motion by Bill, seconded by Barbara. All in favor? 6. Great. Thank you.