001foreign good evening everybody Welcome to our Katonah Lewis Borough Board of Education meeting it's Tuesday August 25th and it is a pleasure to convene this meeting tonight with so many members of our student body our staff our community in attendance we are delighted to be able to have this meeting immediately following such an impressive and important celebration of sustainability which serves to remind us of the urgency around so many of the important issues that our students are researching and helped us to learn about this evening and we very much look forward to hearing our Board of Education presentation this evening and thank you so much to all of the staff members who were involved in putting this together what an incredible um commitment to very important work and the opportunity to hear from our students
002across all levels of the district is really powerful so what a beautiful way to start the meeting and hope everybody is doing well if everybody would please join us as is our custom for the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States thank you terrific wonderful again thank you so much for that terrific beginning to tonight's meeting um we're going to move into our presentation in just a few moments if you'll please just allow us to take a few minutes for some board announcements um it's my pleasure to start by just a few words of congratulations even to some folks at this table congratulations Jake on your performance last night with your acapella singing group and congratulations to the members of the vocal Jazz class that performed and we had two acapella performances it was fantastic
003it was a tribute to our seniors and congratulations to Mrs Faith Walsh who was honored by her departing seniors it was really a very lovely evening congratulations to Neil and thank you for participating in our fifth annual Trail race A little birdie told us that you had a very successful run and um thank you so much to Rob Cummings and his capacity as race director and to our student Direct actors and to the dozens of members of our community who volunteered to support that effort and you know thanks so much for the ongoing dedication and commitment to that trail so thank you and congratulations and please I invite my board colleagues to say more words than I can about some of these other wonderful occurrences between the last board meeting and this board meeting congratulations
004to our science research students on their John Jay High School Symposium last week thank you to our Administration for a learning Cafe and to Rory and to members of our sustainability subcommittee and our student panelists and our staff for I think the best turnout we've ever had for a learning Cafe again around the important topic of sustainability thank you to our KES Administration for a board of ed tour thank you for allowing us into your classrooms to see reading instruction and science instruction um and thank you for what I believe was their last superintendent's coffee thank you to Andrew and Mary for hosting that first of this year of this year rather and I'm going to pause there because I know many board members had opportunity to participate in these and other events just wanted
005to allow you to organize your thoughts and Jog your memory on all that's happened in between the last meeting and this one and my pleasure to turn it over to all of you please Ilana I'll just um Echo what Marjorie you were saying I had the uh privilege to visit KES for the first time um inside the building a beautiful building it was really wonderful to get to see all the kind of through each grade we got to see a lot of different classes um doing Ela work and it was really interesting to see many so many different approaches used in even within one classroom and the ways that students were I was just very impressed with the independence of students at each and every age and their interests and excitement to be there and
006the teachers who were clearly so passionate about their work and the AIDS in the classroom and all that stuff so it was really wonderful to to be there and get to see another school in action thank you terrific thank you so much I'll just Echo your sentiments about the learning Cafe it was great to have so many community members there and so many staff from the school who are also interested and who spend time with us but most importantly as I'm looking forward to tonight the voice of the students and their brutal honesty about how they feel and how they feel about the grown-ups in the room and how we can be doing so much more and I think that's a very important message but I really just thought that it was a fantastic all
007the learning cafes are great and in that they make sure that the community engages and really thinks about problems that are facing not just the school district but society as a whole in this case um and to have it so well attended and so well participate I'm really looking forward to seeing the notes I haven't yet seen all the output from it yet but it was really super super event thanks everybody wonderful thank you any other announcements before we turn to Andrew okay wonderful we would welcome your announcements this evening please I know you have some important announcements for dramatic lighting just so that I can do it thank you I want to Echo the same thing for the learning Cafe thank you to Mary and many of our teachers who are here tonight de
008Rory members of the committee who helped to put together the slides and again thank you to all of the colleagues and community members and particularly students who came and joined in the conversation last week uh it was it was really great to see so many people there I want to Second marjories congratulations to the science research Symposium here at the high school if you've never attended a high school science research Symposium it is just it's mind-boggling to think about and see how sophisticated our students are in their thoughts and the kind of work that they were doing from cancer research to everything else in the world you can you can see the future unfolding in front of us and it's really exciting um congratulations to our robotics team who have returned now from a really
009exciting stay in Texas last week that was really exciting I know for many of us personally and for us as an organization and thanks to technology to even be able to catch live stream glimpses of the competition as it was unfolding and to know that our students were competing against teams from places like Romania and elsewhere around the world just a phenomenal experience for them and for all the students who are involved in that International composition and we're glad they made it there and made it home safely and then some some plugs for upcoming events this week of course is j-fest a great Community event starts on Friday afternoon we're really keeping our fingers crossed that the weather holds through Saturday and that it should be if the weather does hold A really lovely and
010well-attended event best of luck to all of our teams competing on the weekend and thanks in advance to all the volunteers who will be helping out on the weekend too Marjorie mentioned the concert last night we have another one on Thursday night at the high school the music the K 6 through 12 music technology three showcase so that should be another really exciting night here at John Jay and then again on Tuesday the Jazz and band concert here at the high school and the last announcement tomorrow night is the fifth grade parent orientation at John Jay middle school for next year is rising sixth grade so very busy uh things happening all around if it's okay I'm going to go right into some other kinds of types of announcements tonight so we don't always do
011some of our business up front but when we have guests with us we like to take care of some really important business up front and perhaps give guests who are in some cases arrived with family tonight the opportunity if they need to get children home to leave us so tonight I am very excited to announce the recommendations for appointment three recommendations for appointment to important leadership positions in our district and of course each announcement is somewhat Bittersweet as it each also marks the departure of a colleague a little bit later this year but we can both celebrate our colleagues who are departing and be excited to welcome new colleagues to our klsd community and I'd also like to thank all the parents and members of the staff and members of our Board of Education who
012were involved in the hiring processes that led to tonight's recommendations and I so appreciate the thoughtful input of everyone who was involved in that process so now first I am recommending tonight Mike Lavoy to our board to be appointed as our next director of facilities it's hard to believe that Mike has already worked in our district for 25 years but it's true and we couldn't be happier uh since 1998 a year when a gallon of gas cost a dollar fifteen right Mike Mike has been a member of our operations and maintenance department and for the last eight years he's served as four person in that same Department working side by side with our current director Paul Christensen and I know that Paul is both proud and thrilled that we are making this recommendation tonight and
013believes that he is leaving the department in extremely capable hands and I certainly agree with Paul on those sentiments Mike will be a terrific leader not only of the daily work of making sure how buildings and grounds are safe operational and beautiful each day but also in supporting all the work to be done under the current Bond referendum which he is already helping to move forward so tonight I'll be recommending Mike Lavoy for appointment as our next director of facilities effective May 5th 2023 and if it's okay I'm going to talk about two more folks and then ask all three if you would stand and be recognized and I know the board will have some business to take care of so next I'm going to go right on and introduce Miss Megan Sullivan and recommend
014her as our next director of special services Megan currently serves as an administrator for elementary special education and cpsc in the Mahopac Central School District where she has worked since 2020 prior to her work in Mahopac Megan was tenured as the Director of pupil Personnel Services at the Port Jervis School District she received her education through SUNY Geneseo Suny Albany and the Massachusetts College of liberal art Megan began her career as a special education teacher before moving into administrative and Leadership positions throughout the search process Megan impressed all that she met with her deep care for children her knowledge of the necessary and appropriate services and regulations and her enthusiasm for the work of supporting all children so it's my great pleasure tonight to recommend Megan Sullivan for the position of director of special services
015effective June 5th 20 23 and last but not least I am happy to introduce Dr Julia desalvo Drake and recommend her as our next assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the last 12 years Julia has been the Principal of Springhurst Elementary School the school of more than 700 students in the Dobbs Ferry School District at Springhurst in addition to the many daily duties of a school leader Julia LED curriculum reviews and innovations that included among others the areas of ela math science and social emotional learning in Dobbs Ferry Julia has worked closely with colleagues at all levels of the district and as a result has insight into the workings of the entire K-12 educational operation prior to her work in Dobbs Ferry Julia was the principal of P.S 147 the Isaac Remsen school in
016Brooklyn and like Megan Julia began her career as a special education teacher after earning degrees in political science and Elementary education she received her doctor of Education in educational leadership through manhattanville college and this past year she was a participant in the advanced educational policy leadership program through Columbia University where she has had a focus on high school graduation requirements our interview committees enjoyed meeting and getting to know Dr Drake and it's my pleasure tonight we recommend her for the position of assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction effective July 1st 2023 if all three perhaps kajab just recognize stand and be recognized thank you Andrew for those kind words of introduction and with the board's permission I'd like to suggest that we accelerate taking action on consent agenda items 11.01 to 11.03 so it's my pleasure
017to move those consent agenda items thank you for seconding Julia and please allow us just to underscore your sentiments and so far as you know we are deeply grateful to our veteran staff for their enormous contributions to the daily lives of Katona lewisboro students over the past however many years they have served because of course we're talking about three individuals and appointing their successors this evening and thank you for the structures and the work that has enabled Katona Lewis bro to continue to attract very talented accomplished individuals to our school district we have had opportunity to meet those of you who are with us tonight we are delighted to welcome you to Katona lewisboro we thank you for joining us here tonight we really appreciate the opportunity to see you in person and to congratulate
018you and it really is our pleasure to take action on Andrew's recommendations is there no further comments we can vote all in favor please say hi 6-0 thank you so much welcome to Katonah Lewis Borough [Applause] thank you and we are with no further Ado going to move forward to our featured presentation for the evening we do however understand that of our guests who have small children or who need to go and travel to pick up children you know with with no hard feelings you know we invite people to stay we encourage you and invite you to stay or to please you and feel free to go if that's um necessary thank you and with that it is my pleasure to turn it over to Mary and to our sustainability committee perhaps you're going to
019say some words of introduction thank you and I think are we going to do some rearranging we are going to do some rearranging yeah so we're going to invite some folks up to join us at the table so I'm going to invite um Steve zoller Melissa Brady and Jim Panzer too start by joining us so tonight we're going to be talking about as as a parent the work of sustainability in the district and this encompasses a variety of different types of work coming from a variety of different sources and we're really excited to tell you about all of it tonight yeah I'm moving the thing on the side [Music] which I'm not having any luck here um sorry about that I need help in so many different ways thank you very much okay so uh
020first we are thrilled to have a number of guests who will be helping us with the presentation tonight uh already at the table Melissa Brady uh a little bit later we'll be hearing from Jane Emig as well as Laura Monash and Sharon page chimpanza has joined us already thank you Jim uh we'll be hearing later from Mark fieldking and Steve Weissmuller from our sustainability committee and Steve zoler is already at the table with us Mary will be doing some of the presenting as well as the Nell placela who will be coming up later and of course a number of our students as you've already heard tonight so first of all when we talk about sustainability and hopefully many have seen this symbol before this is a graphic that we use to help our staff our
021students our families know where we give focus in our district so the very center is our learning commitment that talks about engaging relevant and active classrooms and increasingly over the years we've come to believe that engaging relevant and active classrooms have to be classroom that also consider diversity equity and inclusion social emotional learning and of course sustainability and that that lends tremendous relevance to the work going on in all of our classrooms and so we remind ourselves of that continually and tonight you're going to think with us about this framework for sustainable schools these three areas we'll talk about community and curriculum and campus and we'll start with community and then move to curriculum and campus and you'll hear more about that as we move through the presentation you're also going to hear us talk
022and we've had feedback lately on this idea of a definition of sustainability so it was really nice to see recently that when you look back at our original Board of Education policy developed back in 2009 I believe was the first policy drafted even though it had been work happening prior to that our board at that time used the United Nations definition that you see up here on the screen which talks about development defined that meets the needs of the Pres present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and we increasingly understand that it's very important for us to help staff and students throughout the district have a common understanding of sustainability so that we know that we're all working towards similar ends and you'll probably hear more about that as
023we go through the presentation tonight I'm not going to read everything that's on this next slide you will see a version of this slide later in the presentation but the goal in showing it to you early on is simply to show you how many different things have happened in our district all the way back to 2005 and bringing us all the way forward on the journey on this highway to Where We Are Tonight with a recommendation that will be made later this evening to our board you can see that Lots has happened in our district in between again we're going to highlight some of that later but we wanted you to have a sense and this slide is I believe already on our website so if you want to take the time on your own
024time to read everything that's there you can certainly do that so now without further Ado I will turn over to Mary and we're going to move into the community section of the presentation thank you so if we could go to the next slide please Andrew thank you so when we think about our community we first think about the school community and um certainly there are many different members of our school Community who work together so our board's leadership of course has been very important to this work and we have the board's sustainability subcommittee which has been meeting as Andrew just mentioned and the leadership of having those policies around sustainability adopted in 2008 and revised in 2012 and 2016. in terms of Faculty leadership I'm joined by three of my colleagues tonight and they're going
025to say a little more about their role in one moment but also you'll be hearing tonight about our district-wide Green Team so this year we're fortunate to have advisors at every one of our schools to have student-led clubs that work on different issues around sustainability and you'll get to meet with some of them in just a short while but together they compose this district-wide green team and so we've had some opportunities for students from different levels to work together we just had an opportunity today for some middle school and high school students to be at Vassar College for a climate Summit which was really wonderful but having this green team has really helped to move the work forward and really help to inspire many of the adults around so I will turn it over to
026my colleagues Jim Panzer so Jim is one of the curriculum integration leaders for our district he's also a high school science teacher Melissa Brady is the curriculum integration leader who focuses on our Elementary Middle grades and she's a family and consumer science teacher at John Jay middle school and Steve zoller who's a staff developer former High School teacher here at John Jay High School so they'll talk a little bit about each of their roles sure sure so my focus is is on bringing curriculum into the classroom and I've always believed it's really important to have students working with students and so I I try to focus on doing it in areas where kids can work together across grade levels and because I especially love a challenge across building so for example um I'll talk to
027teachers and for example in the kindergarten Jackie Kovach kids were out in the playground looking at pinwheels and due to the windmills that we have and some of the things we talked about they were like well can we make electricity and so I got them in touch with Jonathan Peter at the prince at uh at the high school for principles of engineering we actually had a field trip go over there and the kids in the high school class did a presentation on wind energy and it was just a great experience overall another opportunity is for the engineering class to create the watering system for the pulmonary Nader Garden so again the engineering class was working with Miss hirschfeld for that and so I'm always looking for opportunities to to make a change I think his
028students do things that are real authentic relevant engaging and active they're going to learn more and so for me uh I know we had the definition of sustainability but I've mentioned this before is that through the third grade science and the standards there we know that as habitats change organisms live well less well or not at all and my job is to make sure that climate change happens more slowly or not at all by working with the kids in our district to impact the change wow thank you um so I'm Melissa Brady and I like Stephen Jim and Mary it's been so supportive of our of our work I'm really committed to bringing the values and themes of sustainable and responsible choices into our curriculum from K-12 um I think one of the most important
029elements of our work is to bring raise awareness about the issues and make sure that everyone begins to consider ways that they can integrate them into their into their classrooms into their curriculum and we've had so many wonderful opportunities to partner with outside organizations both local and you know National or International so we had a wonderful connection with Hilltop Hanover farm and environmental center we took the students on a trip there which was a partnership with myself at the middle school I brought the Green Team students with us this year and we went with the humanities research students at the high school and some of the Wilderness class children so that was our one of our first times of mixing grade levels together from middle school to high and the students responded to it positively
030to it so we're working on in our roles and in my role I think like Steve and I know Jim will talk to his as well we feel like it's important to make connections between the students from level to level so that they're building relationships and working together and feeling even more empowered and then we've had these fantastic opportunity to work with Janie Munson and so in my role I feel like I can be sort of a go-between between the resources that are available out in the world in uh through like shaney's climoscope project or through the environmental literacy Foundation or most recently I facilitated a book study a book written by Zoe Weil who founded the institute for Humane education and so by bringing the resources of these external organizations and this good work
031that's done Nation nationally and globally we can bring that work into our district through our positions and kind of keep stepping it down and making it more real and applicable with our colleagues and our and the students in our care yeah in my role I just see myself as a resource for other teachers to uh reach out to me in in in its Inception I really just began by listening to what teachers needed um to find out where they were at to begin with so to know how to so I can know what I can say to them to inform their curricula and um their needs are are varied and vast and and so different you know because as a science teacher I may not just have it the tip of my tongue what an
032English teacher can do to integrate sustainability so um through through meeting with teachers uh specifically Anna treller she suggested a student mentorship program and I thought okay so if we get students working across the district with the district with each other and also with teachers we can maybe see what they have to say and I have to say and I must say that using student voice to to drive curriculum changes has been the most powerful part of this job um in terms of like how uh the depth that that we can get into and how much uh uh the reach that students have uh using their voice I mean they ran professional development workshops because of what we did so teachers are really listening uh to students because as we always have because the students
033are really there are number one customers right like we're here to serve them um more than anyone else and so if we're not listening to them and what their needs are and what their concerns are then what are we doing right so that's that's why we're here so that's the conduit for which I'm reaching other teachers is through the students thank you so that's what we're quickly um that's an example of one of the things that our green team did this year so members of our Green Team were able to work with Cheney Munson a consultant Melissa mentioned um and we worked on it just so happened that one of his planned visits happened on a workshop Wednesday here at the high school and on Workshop Wednesdays for those of you who aren't familiar students
034get to attend Choice workshops throughout the day um and there there's no new instruction happening in class a small group and review and things like that so we had students from every school represented and they did stations around the room where they taught high school students about different projects related to sustainability all related to food so it was really interesting and there were was some taste testing going on as there was tonight outside of the library here so that's just one of the pictures of the green team members on that special day but also mentioned there and I think you mentioned this as well well just now Jim we had a panel for teachers on superintendent's conference day back in February and on that day our students were able to talk to teachers about things
035they were really passionate about and why that was so important to them and that was really nice because they were on the panel and then they also were able to sit at tables with teachers and talk through some of the things that were really important so just examples of what the Green Team can do and is doing and so we have green teams as I mentioned at every school sustainability Club so Steve and Melissa are the advisors for the high school and the middle school clubs we'll turn it over to them to talk a little bit about their work okay um so I'm the advisor to the green team at the middle school and I could not be more proud of the students they're so invested they're so inspiring and they've really done so much
036um this year and I I was very fortunate because as a middle school teacher I just by nature of the fact that I teach at the middle school I adopted the students that had been primed um by their through their involvement at the elementary level in um in Lara monash's group particularly but in any event um they've come up to middle school and we've done a lot of good work this year and I think um they've done such good work raising awareness and speaking about what they care about in a way that has really called people to attention and asked them to consider these very important issues so I'm proud to represent the green team at the middle school and be part of a larger K through K12 connection so I'm the co-advisor of earthrise
037along with Krista Munger and what I think about what's great about the club is just their passion many of them were here this morning at 6 30 to catch a bus to Vassar and they're still here and eager to talk exactly so there's a lot of projects that we've done uh the goal of of reducing waste um so we've had projects where we um would collect clothing and bring that to the Katonah Community Center for repurposing um the kids were getting into more sustainable consumerism and so instead of buying lip balms and solves this is our second year we're at either Christmas or Valentine's Day or both we make lip balms and and salves um for gifts and try to educate people on why it's better to use that type of thing than what you
038would buy in the store um we have a great resource in the community bed for 2030 I think members are here from there and they've really guided us and try to make our work more impactful to hit a larger audience and and to be more effective and so we continue to do that um as we enter the green light Ward and I think we actually have on Saturday is the uh the final round where we have two two groups coming in to present and you'll be hearing from the newest advisors at the for the Green Team uh at the elementary schools that are modeled specifically after Dr laramona she she brought the recycling matters to so it's been many years that that that's been happening but now there's a green team at every single Elementary
039School and you'll be hearing from those advisors too yeah and those are just some of the highlights that are on the screen right now and I'm sure some those were some of the stations but when we have our elementary colleagues and students join us talk a little bit more about those things as well and then thinking outside the school Community just thinking about the larger community so some of the organizations that we've become connected with um as was just mentioned Bedford 2030 Lewisburg State sustainability was there today sustainable Westchester Cheney Munson's climoscope project which is really a collection of tools and resources for teachers for students at all different ages we just today through this conference that we attended at Vassar College we connected with World Savvy which is an organization that works with lots
040of different school districts helping them think about how to bring sustainability into the curriculum and also the institute for Humane education so Melissa mentioned the book study she did the book was called the world is what we teach and I would highly recommend it it was really inspiring and it's prompted us to think a lot more about the solutionary framework so she kind of frames all of this around Solutions and being solutionaries which was a new term but we've really tried to think more about that when we think about all the problem solving that we do how important that is and on the right there on that same slide you'll see some of just the opportunities to engage the larger community in this conversation hopefully our last two sustainability celebrations as we had tonight these
041kinds of presentations learning cafes but all of our clubs have some events that you'll hear more about some of them for the Greater Community as well as the school Community but participating in budget and bond votes and things like that and all of our Communications just different ways that the district as an organization can communicate so I think that's a great segue into curriculum so we'll we'll move there and um on this next slide you'll see something that is familiar to many of you the United Nations sustainable development goals um this was something that was definitely discussed today at the conference we attended but we've been discussing this for quite a few years now and think that this is a really wonderful framework for helping us think about all the big problems in the world
042and how they connect to sustainability and all the things that need Solutions so this has been really helpful you know and as Andrew mentioned at the very beginning of the presentation how we Define sustainability I think is really important so if we think about it in very narrow ways it's harder for our teachers to think about how to incorporate this into the curriculum but when you look at all these problems in the world um as they are framed here it's hard to think about any subject area that wouldn't be touched by one of these areas so it just gives us an opportunity to think about ways to bring it into the curriculum um so as Jim and Melissa mentioned there are curriculum integration leaders you know developing an awareness of these kinds of things there
043are some standards that are developing some states have started to develop standards as well um sharing resources so you'll see there's a schoology group for all of our teachers to be a part of padlets filled with teacher resources and just the connections that were mentioned already across the different schools and levels that are really exciting and then making sure that we have opportunities for professional learning through staff developers work through superintendent's conference day offerings these book studies and just opportunities to share all of the wonderful work that's happening in classrooms so this is a good opportunity to bring some of our middle and high school students up thank you Steve would it make sense too down so if we could have our middle and high school students join us um and we're actually going to
044start by talking about some cross level curriculum connections and then move into high school and middle school and then we'll hear from elementary that order was just so that the seating wouldn't be back and forth and I'll let the teachers introduce their students who are with them this evening yeah so uh at the high school what we did was um in my environmental physics class we have my students I was talking at part of the um the sustainability in our schools uh uh Advisory Board of what what we're called we uh we were talking about how we can get kids to work together in um in my environmental physics class that we'll hear Catherine Martin speak to soon um uh Jane Emig was wondering she was like yeah I would love to see your kids
045projects and I thought to myself oh and I said out loud I was like shouldn't that be a pretty easy thing to facilitate you're just a couple miles away so that was uh the dawn of my students presenting to the entire fourth grade at increased Miller uh for their passive house projects that uh Catherine will speak to and then it was that was last year now these ideas kind of morphed into uh um Green Team in general and that's what you see the other so one big the picture on the right is the passive house presentations that happened about a week and a half ago maybe two weeks ago and the picture on the left is the Green Team some of my other students working um and presenting as part of a workshop Wednesday that
046students at the high school take part of um on some special special Wednesdays in the year it was kind of like born out of or not it was one little uh Silver Lining to covet it was like hey can we think about education differently and so these Workshop Wednesdays kind of happened and we have the uh our students presenting uh all milk alternate Alternatives which if you attended these sustainability celebration that we just had an hour ago you might have uh been enlightened to what those milk alternatives are that's Arielle barneve in the picture there on the left um yeah so and and to my left here is uh Catherine Martin who can speak to uh environmental physics and to her leftist Center Levi who can speak to Green Team initiatives hello everyone like I
047like Mr Panzer said my name is Catherine Martin um and I'm I'm in his environmental physics class so um in this class the main I guess goal of the entire class would make us would be to make us think of consumerism and about the world from a new lens I suppose in a sustainable lens because I feel like students of my generation you know we know of the problems with the climate crisis and how important sustainability is but we haven't had a class that we or at least I haven't where you can dive into actually how to be critical consumers from the first the first day of school we talked about on being critical consumers when it came to Mr Panda's car he happened to be purchasing a car at the same time we so
048that was a good like segue in and um one of the other highlights in this class was we actually did a sleepout project which I think gets a lot of students to take the class where you learn just about basically how to conserve heat in different parts of that and then you actually spend the night outside for a project and make a video project on that I did that with some of my friends and it was a really cool experience in Winter yeah in Winter yes I forgot about that um but the big star I guess of this uh class is the passive house project so of course as we're going into the world a lot of people taking this class are Juniors and seniors we're going to soon not super soon we have a
049little bit longer but uh perhaps to purchase our own homes and everything and um so we actually learned about a passive home which is a home that just runs sustainable sustainable and runs on its own and so we've been doing this project for a long time we've learned a lot of really interesting things about heat pumps about even putting like Windows on the south facing wall that if you learn one thing from environmental physics because it's that and um it it's really just an amazing class that and I think it also speaks a lot to Mr panders panzer's teaching and like having him teach it he really do no I'm not just saying this because he's sitting next to me but he really we we have we're taking charge of our own learning which I
050think is such an important thing especially with something like sustainability and something that's so important to our in our future and it's it's really I think the most important thing and if we're able to learn how to think for ourselves be critical to Consumers when it comes to a car and a house we're going to think differently about everything in the world and I think coming out of this class I'm gonna I'm gonna take a lot from it and yeah that says a lot to Mr Panzer and also the class and it's really just a great class yeah thanks so much [Applause] um so hi everyone um I'm sonolivi I'm a senior at John Jay and I'm also a leader of the earthrise sustainability Club at the high school um which is also in partnership
051with the district-wide green team so under the mentorship of Stephen zoller and Krista Munger earthrise has had an extremely successful year for our commitment to sustainability in our school our Tuesday meetings do not always host a large group of students but as Margaret Mead said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world indeed it's the only thing that ever has over the course of this year earthrise has taken vast strides to raise awareness of the sustainability movement unite the district and local community and enact positive change in our classrooms offices and lives we believe in the intersection between education and activism and we've dedicated our efforts towards Bridging the Gap between lessons and action and stealing for Mr zoller a bit there that's sort of this whole Spiel so
052I thank him for his influence on me um in September we partnered with Jill hirschfield to craft our own herbal selves and lip balms out of melted beeswax lavender calendula and other herbs we sold those as a club fundraiser to raise awareness of consumerism we also hosted a clothing Drive entitled to share the warmth as part of our commitment to reuse clothing for people in need and to reduce our wasteful impact um also most recently we represented John Jay High School at the Bedford 2030 Community Forum the power of trees um we hosted hosted a booth showcasing the sustainability efforts of our club and the district at large as some of you may know the Forum attracted a very dense crowd including Martha Stewart who took a photo of our booth [Laughter] um and also
053we forged new connections with local organizations such as the green light competition which then especially invited us to join as a competitor earthrise on its own also partnered with green team in general under the leadership of Stephen zoller Melissa Brady and Jim Panzer to promote a culture of conservation and student leadership in klsd some of our most notable events include the superintendent conference day where we conducted a student-run panel with District staff to facilitate sustainability curriculum integration teachers amended their curriculums to include sustainability in classrooms beyond the science department and it sparked new connections between students and faculty that have continued on until now we also designed a collaborative Workshop Wednesday a picture which you saw earlier to educate students about sustainable consumerism Green Team students created booths to raise awareness and engage students directly
054in sustainable movements we also recently participated in the learning Cafe to work with the community in the Board of Education you've heard the positive reviews here today but from a student perspective I also thoroughly enjoyed the event and I thank the board for creating a forum in which student voices are uplifted and respected thank you um [Applause] I'd also just like to say quickly um that our the calendar for next year is already filling up and while I'm here on behalf of earthrise and the Green Team I also like would like to acknowledge the other students who have contributed greatly so thank you to Catherine Martin Austin Omen Ariel barneve and baron krutzer [Applause] I think it might okay so um the photos that you're seeing on that slide represent what some of the things
055that the middle school students are doing both in the Green Team and then also in our curriculum um so you see there that I think the main purpose of our of our Green Team would be to um raise awareness and then turn that their their passions into action projects so the the main focus that they've been working on this year is to reduce plastic waste in our schools and in addition to the all of the things that Santa mentioned which our students were present at including the climate Summit this morning so they are remarkable for being up and about and still still performing so late in the night but um yeah so they've been very involved in all the activities that were just listed and I thank them for that they're all so um tonight
056we have Nola Hargrove who's going to speak about the Green Team and Taya antis is here to speak about the seventh grade some of her learning in the middle school where I would just frame it with um we're learning about food literacy and so the question is how can we make food choices that are good for the environment and the planet so Taya is going to speak to that and then Joe Moore was here tonight from Hilltop Hanover so that's another really important and curriculum connection that we've made this year tell you would you like to begin yes thank you so my name is Taya and I ask Brady 7th grade family and consumer science class um so this year we learned a ton about the importance of food and sustainability um we started off
057the Year by tracing the everyday foods that we eat whether it's at home or in the cafeteria at school and we traced it back to its origin and we learned a ton about how it's grown and the impact of that system on our environment and our health we then started talking about how everything that we use everything that we eat and everything that we buy makes a huge difference in our environment and can impact it for the better or for the worst depending on how we choose to use these privileges we did this through watching many PowerPoint presentations many videos and having multiple class discussions to help us better understand these topics after this we began viewing some different sustainable products that we can use in our home anywhere or in our kitchen included every
058day to enforce sustainability in our home environment and Community these products included many items made from reusable compostable and eco-friendly materials we then moved on to our Hands-On food portion of our class and here as we one on one hand made some different foods using our five senses and created meaningful meals with a multitude of taste elements we also discussed a little bit about things that we can do in the kitchen every day to help enforce sustainability which included composting using leftovers again and many more small things that even if they're really little in the short term they actually add up to a lot in the long term after that we moved back to our original class portion and started this big project that a lot of us presented here tonight earlier at the um
059at the event where we got to choose if we wanted to either act educate or inform to make this amazing meaningful presentation that helped to enforce sustainability in both our school and home and communities everywhere that we could and with the help and support of Miss Brady our other teachers our peers and outside Partnerships which for us my group teamed with Nola and some of her friends at the green team we made a huge presentation or any media choice that we wanted like a video or a campaign anything like that that would make a huge impact on both us and our community so specifically for my project we kind of chose the same thing that I know that the green team had been working on a lot this year which was to reduce plastic cups
060and plastic waste in our school can community and neighboring communities by changing the plastic cups in our water coolers at JJ Ms and all of the other schools to biodegradable cups which as I said we earlier presented um we did a PowerPoint side things like that and it's been so much fun learning about the different the importance of food and sustainability and I've enjoyed Miss Brady's class so much thank you [Applause] hi I'm Nola it is truly spectacular to see how far our school district has come with our efforts towards sustainability because of my participation in the Green Team I've had some wonderful experiences for example our trip to Hilltop Hanover Farm last fall when we visited Hilltop we learned about sustainable agriculture while we were there we got to participate by working in the
061fields and we built relationships with a wider community in our district going forward our goals are to eliminate single-use plastic in our district and learn more about how we can raise awareness about the positive impact we can have on our community if we work together work together lastly this would never have been possible without the help of Miss Brady thank you [Applause] thank you all so I'd like to invite our elementary colleagues and students up at this time um and they're going to talk a little bit about thank you so much about their curriculum and their Green Team experiences as well so you can see while we're transitioning here some of the highlights some of which were mentioned already thinking about kindergarten students studying wind turbines which was really exciting increased Miller you'll hear a
062little bit more about some of the earth appreciation art projects and the collaboration between classroom teacher and the art teacher because tonus students working in the garden to learn about plants and the seed to seed cycle and science units across the grades working on energy weather climate plant and animal relationships so I'm joined by our Green Team advisors my colleagues Jane Emig Laura Monash and Sharon page and Jane Lara and Sharon will introduce their students so Jane would you mind starting us off Absolutely I'll introduce myself Jane Emig fourth grade teacher at increased Miller also Green Team advisor and you wanna and um I'm Maymay I'm a fifth grade student at increased Miller and I am a part of the Green Team I'm Laura malnash I'm a school psychologist at Meadow Pond advisor for our
063recycling matters Club MPS Green Team um I'm Avery pernick and I'm a fifth grade student at Meadow Pond and I'm in recycling matters Club Sharon page 4th grade at Katonah Elementary and joining me are two students from the very new KES Green Team that's been in existence since March 1st we're out there and would you like to introduce yourselves um my name is Eliza Isaacson um I am yeah my name is Alverson and I'm also okay I'll start um so hi I'm here as a teacher and also as a green team advisor I'm going to share with you some of the objectives we have for the green team at increased Miller um we have four objectives that we follow first we're Learners and we learn about what sustainability is about why sustainability is important for
064everyone to learn about we learn about the concerning climate issues we learn about what is currently being done to improve the situation and we learn about possible solutions so first we're Learners second we plan so at our meetings we plan activities and events to raise awareness we plan events and activities to generate more interest on a greater scale and we also plan simple actions challenges to get everyone involved also the third objective we have is we collaborate so we collaborate with each other and we also collaborate with members of the katonalist school district other school buildings and communities to reach our goals and finally we consider ourselves activists after planning we take action wherever we can to encourage positive changes we care very deeply about the earth and the people in it um we have
065a voice and that's something we talk about at all of our meetings and it's so exciting for to be able to look at our elementary students in the face and say you have a voice and you have something you know to say and this year especially I'm getting a little off my script here but this year we've had a lot of great opportunities for students to do that um and we want to spread the word and reach out to as many people as possible one of the most exciting opportunities we've had this year was for myself as an advisor was to give my students the opportunity to travel over to the high school and collaborate with their older peers and learn from them and learn together and I think even the older peers I think
066were equally as impressed with the younger students for what they had to say um and I think Maymay would like to share some of the activities from her perspective um so in our increased similar Green Team we are Learners first right now we're learning about um a program called terracycle where you can take empty um right now it's little bytes packets and you can donate them to make money for your school so when I first saw that I was like wow this is great and I showed Mrs Emig and now we we planned to um get that up and running and then we collaborated with Dr wesler our vice principal and we were able to put it into action and now we are collecting the little bytes packets so secondly we um we're working on
067an assembly to we're putting together an assembly for our school for all of the grades um on Friday on Friday this Friday um yes um so we learned about the schedule we learned about what we would say um and things that we can teach the rest of our school then we planned on what we would say we planned to make a little skit and we collaborated we talked to Dr wessler and Mrs Ford our vice principal and principal about what um when we can um do the assembly and now this Friday we're gonna put it into action and we're going to do um we're going to put we're we're gonna do the assembly for all of the grades and we have our younger Green Team our Green Team Junior that are also going to be
068a part of the assembly um oh and another thing that we're doing is at the end of the assembly we are going to challenge all of the students uh and their families for the I love Earth family challenge where you can um do seven things to show that you care about the Earth and how you are showing that and then we can make a little button that says um our family loves the Earth so we really want the whole point of our green team is to spread the word and reach as many people as possible just teaching them about sustainability and how they can teach others [Applause] I loved hearing that thank you for sharing it's wonderful to hear what other schools are doing because I did have the opportunity last year to come and
069present with three of my students one who continues on here at the middle school and presented to you just a few moments ago I I get chills when I hear the excitement and the energy from students at this young age and the continue on um and now that both my other elementary schools colleagues are here to present at their schools and to Foster this excitement and energy and knowledge is just wonderful um so right now my club consists of 21 fifth grade students only fifth grade 21 so I think we're talking about a third of the fifth grade and that's actually up five students from the year before uh it's it's amazing the numbers so this clearly shows that more and more students want to learn and be active in sustainability so on the beginning
070the first session these 21 students come and I said what do you want to learn what do you want to do with this club this year and the outstanding threat I heard from them when I asked them was that they wanted to learn and more importantly they wanted to teach others that just kept coming up over and over again about Recycling and sustainability so that the Earth would be a better place for future Generations so as I mentioned our club meets weekly and we have monthly collections which really gives the elementary child a hands-on experience of being able to make a difference we want to repurpose and reuse and most importantly keep everything out of the landfills the collections have included the Halloween candy for active military Halloween costumes winter clothing that were donated to
071the Katonah Community Center indoor games stuffed animals recently in March we partnered with our PTO and parp and collected animal supplies and donated them to Roar and Ridgefield those supplies might have been newspapers blankets toys or food we are now collecting spring clothing and we are also in the process of collecting markers we just put out while you're doing terracycle we're doing markers we're collecting markers Miss Brady is also doing it at the middle school we have boxes in all the halls I usually started this in June but I said oh why not start it now um and we collected all the markers that will be recycled properly um by Bic it used to be Crayola but now it's thick and that's great uh I guess kovitz did come in so anyway so we're going
072to do that right now and I had that and we of course we collect bottles and cans every week we had two large bags outside at our sustainability celebration um to document what one week's worth of bottles and cans were and what we do is we really repurpose everything besides getting the money for those bottles and cans keeping them out of landfills we're using that money to help others with the emergency shelter breakfast that was back in the fall for our homeless and then we're also taking the Caps off of those bottles and cans and sending them to the middle school for Jean capuanas she does an art project a mosaic with those and so we are doing a little bit of the connection between the other schools and I think that's wonderful and I
073think what I've also noticed was through these different uh K-12 programs that we've had the students will go up to my younger students are going up to the older students and their older students are accepting their connection and conversation about sustainability and that is wonderful leadership that the secondary students are able to show and I love that connection uh it's just natural it's wonderful so as I mentioned the students really wanted to learn and teach so the focus on much of the year has been passion projects they chose what they wanted to do when they choose it's more meaningful to them so with that being said we had a variety of passion projects that included light pollution air pollution land pollution noise pollution ocean pollution pollutions impact on animals renewable energy sources and eating sustainability
074we share some of the research here tonight fortunately there was a lot of conflicts with sports and dance and whatnot but we did have six students present tonight and this week they're presenting at Meadow Pond either through the Morning Report or having their posters up and we're going to record them and luckily we just got two big TVs put back up into our cafeteria and they'll be on a loop so that while the students are eating they'll be able to get all this information so they're going to be learning even while they're eating um so I have to tell you these students come in at 8 15 every Thursday morning and their energy is inspiring they're all caring individuals who want to make a difference and I know they will thank you so she was
075asked to share her thoughts on so I'll let her speak all right so before I share my answers to those questions um I feel like being in the green team this year has been really engaging and awesome so the first question I was asked to answer is what did I what did I learn this year about sustainability I've learned a lot of things um like what sustainability is all about I had no idea what it meant like I just knew it was good and [Applause] um I think at increased Miller they had like the junior Green Team which was K through two and then three through five I wish I had that at my schools because I remember ever since I was in kindergarten I'd wanted to learn more about um like sustainability and how
076I can help so I feel like waiting six years for it was like I was disappointed that I couldn't join when I like first came into school but I'm glad that I can now I've learned how to like recycle properly um and ways to be more sustainable like using renewable products and decreasing um using less one use Plastics and I do wish that I learned all of this before fifth grade I'm just like curious why it like I don't need to feel like rude but like why it took like a while to learn this like I feel like I should have already knew this so I could be learning even more this year I feel like this is just the basics um and I'm also one of the most important things I have learned this
077year is um that I am not like the only person who cares like in this school district um from being on the Green Team and recycling matters there are like so many more people that I can clearly see who care so I feel like that's really that makes me more motivated and then the second question I was asked is how do I think the green team is helping my school to learn about sustainability um the green team has been sorry I'm very happy that the Green Team and like the Board of Education and like all that stuff has been like inviting students to come with like to come to these meetings um because I love knowing that like my voice like my opinion matters as like a fifth grade student and I feel like I
078always want to learn more and with the green team I have been learning more like I wanted to learn this much and I'm like the stuff I learned this year is up here and now like could I have learned more stuff yes but I feel like what I've learned is a bunch and what the green and what the recycling matters Club has been doing for my school particularly um is like awesome we're doing a bunch of presentations this week for the entire school to see and the one I'm doing is ocean pollution as Dr Monash was mentioning those are our passion projects which we are I haven't seen them on the Meadow Pond report yet but I think they're coming and I really like seeing like being in a room where like being like in
079my head I'm like oh my gosh look at all these people who like also care like me and I feel like being able to share my thoughts and what my opinions about like how I could learn more and like what I want this experience to be like is really awesome [Applause] so I'll share briefly when I was um first thinking about starting the green team at KES and reflecting on what I wanted the experience to be like for the kids I was thinking back to when I was in fourth grade in nineteen and um I shared this with the kids last week I had started at the time a group called Cape which was kids always protect Earth and I lived right across the street from my elementary school so I used to go and
080I would look in the dumpster and I would see all the paper in there and I would go back and get my mom's Polaroid and come back and take pictures and I took them to the principal and I kept being like look we're not recycling look at all this garbage we're not doing this and it actually got my school to start more effectively Recycling and it was this moment of oh I did something I made something happen so I really wanted the kids to be able to have that opportunity in The KES green team as well to know that they can make a decision to act and that they can make something happen so in our very first meeting we listed some of the things that we know about what's happening in the environment what's
081important in sustainability and it became very clear that these topics are very big and very scary to the kids and they feel very daunting so in order to make those topics feel really small and accessible I asked what can we do about those things right here what can we do about those things within our school within our community and so the kids developed some initiatives that they wanted to take action on that they've been taking action on and they can introduce themselves to share about what those initiatives are um well we right now we're um we split our Green Team into two groups um and um the one that me and Eliza are working on right now is called the walking Wednesday and um each year once once a day once once a year for
082the school year we um everyone who can walk walks to school or bikes to school um but what we're trying to do is encourage people to walk to school um the first Wednesday of every month um to help like because um buses uh have a lot of carbon dioxide which goes into and greenhouse gases which goes into the atmosphere which is very bad um so uh by walking it's a lot better because it reduces the amount that reaches the atmosphere yeah um and the other group we split into is I actually don't remember and that was the hands clean yes Hands Clean keep it green um so what we're trying to do basically is get our school to switch from paper towels to hand dryers and while we are aware that that is um you
083know like um there are Pros there are cons you know it's expensive and many people are afraid of um cause spread of germs and stuff but overall um there are more Pros than cons because like we've talked to um the custodians at our school about like around how many rolls of paper towels we go through and then done research on how many trees that's cut down because paper towels are a huge part of deforestation and of um our environment um because um you know it's even these things like paper towels you know it doesn't have to be something you know humongous but even these little things like paper towels are you know destroying the Earth and it is scary you know if I'm being honest like this all these topics about like the Earth being
084destroyed and all of this the stuff going on it it scares me um but at the same time I feel like you know we have to fix this in order to face our fears you know and it's taking these steps um even just like switching um just one school from paper towels to hand dryers just taking these steps that are going to help us you know save the world I just want to say one more thing um um on our presentation uh the trifold uh it says about 15 billion trees are cut down every year which is a lot of trees olive trees [Applause] so thank you all so much so impressive to hear what our elementary students are doing thanks to all of our advisors as well so I think at this point we're
085going to transition to start to talk about the campus thank you thank you [Applause] Mary while we're transitioning to the next portion of the presentation I think we just want to underscore our gratitude to our Green Team advisors and um our students for their stamina and willingness to stay with us especially those of you who are at Vassar College earlier today I'm sorry about the planning and the timing but um their articulation their commitment and passion is remarkable and it is so gratifying to see the vertical articulation of this work and and how it's How seeds have been planted and really taken root over time so I'm sure we'll have more to say but I can see that perhaps some folks are making their way to the exit and I did want to just underscore
086our gratitude and comment on how truly necessary and impressive this work really is we really heard a call to action tonight thank you [Music] welcome now I'm moving to the third section of our presentation tonight which is a presentation from the members of our district-wide Board of education's sustainability subcommittee who are going to talk to us about some of the work that's been going on throughout the year as well as some of the work uh I should say the proposal that we're going to be making the Board of Education tonight about future goals I'm not sure Mary who's going to begin the conversation yeah yeah good evening everyone Steve Weissmuller I'm on the kosd sustainability committee as a citizen a resident of lewisboro and a proud father of three students two who are in high
087school and my youngest who's here with me tonight Samara who's also on the Green Team at Miller increase Miller wonderful welcome proud and I'm joined by my colleague martial gang also on the committee so to get started um I'm just going to talk a little bit about what's happening at the state level uh on the next slide you'll see legislation that's passed uh thanks to our governor hokel uh the climate leadership and Community protection act clcpa addresses a number of sustainability matters aggressively nation-leading legislation here reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 85 percent reduction in those same emissions and a carbon neutral economy by 2050 70 renewable energy by 2030 100 fossil free electricity this is everything coming through those power lines by 2040 incredibly all new school bus purchases must
088be zero emissions by 2027. so in just four years all new school buses will be electrified or zero emissions there's other Technologies too but for primary purposes EV is the way to go um so a full electric Fleet by 2035. game changing legislation I said Nation leading New York State you should be proud to be New Yorkers and be proud to be in the school district on the next slide I'm going to talk a little bit about the accomplishments you saw this earlier uh many many bullets little dots colors all different themes that I love this slide um glad I brought my glasses too so all the way from from our first greenhouse gas Mission district-wide inventory in 2008 where we measured the total 7 000 plus metric tons of CO2 equivalent that we were
089admitting emitting from all our schools from all the buses from everything so we did a complete inventory in 2008 we installed solar panels in 2010 I mean you can read or you know through all these different slides uh the different points on this slide um meeting and let me jump sort of ahead to 2018 where we uh did another inventory we'd had a one in 2014 2018 we we did another inventory and at that point and I'm looking so I can actually see it here um at 30 one percent in 20 you know 2019 we reduced carbon emissions by 31 so most impressive more recently in 2022 the bond vote passed geothermal KES and the number of other initiatives we're getting our first EV bus I heard it's not too far away from us uh
090I believe in Poughkeepsie going through its final touches and this year I'm proud as a committee to share that we're proposing a new greenhouse gas goal which Mark will take us through in a few slides I'm going to keep going just looking at the time here to talk about the types of emissions that are out there this is my specialty uh I've been doing it for about 20 years in various companies scope one emissions for those who don't know what a scope one emission is it's the direct burning of any fuel and those are coming directly from the tailpipes of our school buses to stationary combustion in the buildings when we're burning diesel fuel maintenance fleets and refrigerants are included in that scope one emission scope two everything that runs on electricity so this is
091again what's coming through the power lines those are scope two emissions scope three you can think of everything else and in that first inventory and subsequent uh analysis that we've done we looked at teacher and employee commuting so thinking about where where are teachers coming from uh you know how do they do they carpool you know what are some of the different ways that they're getting to school each and every day well before the buses are are leaving and staying way later parent and student commuting we've seen especially around covid a number of parents have shifted their transportation bringing students potentially to school uh lineups of cars out onto 121 or by the elementary schools and so we'll be looking at that over time waste disposal so where do we send our waste composting all
092of that have third or scope three these other types of emissions and then purchase paper and our supply chain where are we buying things from how did they get to the school that type of subject we'll keep going here I think what's really cool is that we're able to show this over time from the blue chart uh down blue is 2008 uh orange is the 2014 inventory and then the 2018 2019 is is the gray and you'll see everything's really come down over time the one nominal increase was in purchase paper uh in the last inventory and that was just a shift in the type of paper that we had procured so we bought paper that previously uh was 100 or you know a higher percentage I think Eliza flagged that this early and we
093flagged it so oh yeah presentation yeah yeah exactly moving off a paper paper is uh is does contribute to our overall missions but uh those first four you can see stationary the commuting the mobile combustion from buses and our electricity emissions account for the largest um and then we we really want to capture everything um moving on and this is where I've asked Samara to to be patient with me many nights dad what are you doing in front of the computer you're crunching more numbers and um so you can see again where we started with with 5619 down to 49.20 and then we ended at 3502 with uh 40 reduction Target [Applause] and reason why this is important and Samara and I were talking about this earlier is the 40 reduction in 2018 if you
094remember back to that legislation that we started with they're just 40 reduction by 2030. so we should be proud of klsd because we met that goal 12 years early and we're setting aggressive targets we're going to come together but I'm gonna sort of move on here and hand it to Mark to talk about our new greenhouse gas emissions so um so this is a big weighty topic right now and should I just blurt it out or should I hold everyone in suspense so uh well let me get some background first so um our sustainability policy which our committee is formed under I think this is um you know how we govern ourselves specifically States and I'm quoting that the committee must recommend to the to the school board to establish goals that include but are
095not limited to reductions in greenhouse gases energy use missions are particular to other pollutants so that's part of the policy that we passed in 2009 um I think though it's interesting in context because I've been around since then um that was you know that was definitely passed to address climate change but it also was addressed to address the health effects of burning those fuels and the effects of those um those harms on not only our students but also our faculty and our staff so this is not just about greenhouse gas emissions for climate change it's also about health so um so if you go to the next slide um I think we can announce now that our committee is recommending that we reduce emissions 85 percent by 2040. and um that is a that is
096a really impressive Target but we did not come to this lightly we actually did quite a bit of work to come to this conclusion in fact we I think we worked a whole year on this it feels like it um and some of the bullet points here uh point out to what we did so first we um analyzed uh scope one which is our stationary energy uh data and what we did is we simply just took the regular building surveys so this is the building surveys that outline what the eventual Investments that have to be made in our buildings for example what things are starting to um come to the end of useful life and what timing would that be and if you look at the that schedule over the next 35 or 30 years
097that's a huge Tailwind because we're gonna have to replace this equipment anyway so we use that data to back into what we thought would be a reasonable goal um we also observe that this district is gradually shifting to installing air conditioning and because heat pumps now are not only air conditioning but they also produce heat that allows for a gradual reduction in use of oil even though the oil system is still in place those heat pumps are actually generating heat as well that's another bit of a Tailwind to actually achieving this goal we're also very aware and Steve's you know super involved in this uh directly in his professional life that there are very likely Technologies coming down the pike certainly within the next 10 years that will make oil-based systems obsolete much sooner than
098we imagined and again it's like the old buggy whip analogy no one knew that was going to be obsolete but it did it became obsolete pretty quickly that seems to be happening as well and lastly we all know that our buildings which are very old are built in the 50s and 60s they can be improved from an efficiency perspective as well so we need to focus on that as well so not only changing our systems from oil but also improving the efficiency of our buildings with all that embedded we are very comfortable with recommending this goal related to stationary energy but then we focused on Transportation as well and we actually were looking at this uh this process before we even knew that that mandate would come into place so um but the fact that
099you know a gradual but consistent shift of vehicles to more better fuel economy is what we looked at before we even look at EV Trends so electric vehicle Trends are definitely accelerating and then if you pair that with 100 fossil free electricity by 2040 Statewide that again pairs up really well with this goal so um so in short you know I think this was a very rigorous approach the committee spent a lot of time working on it um uh I think we have to establish this goal as a as a school district and so uh this is our best shot at recommending what we think can be done and I think it will actually um you know I just want to Echo certainly um what the students were saying earlier today the activity by students
100will make this effort bear or many more dividends than just reaching this goal I think the education piece of this is a unrealized opportunity frankly and if we can integrate that piece of it into our goals and how we achieve them that's just a massive uh benefit to the district overall so um I will pause I think we had one more slide just to thank you for your for the thoughts you've shared with us there we really appreciate it and and to just be absolutely crystal clear it sounds very similar to the clcpa goal 85 reduction the goal here is 10 years prior to the state's legislative goal right 2040 versus 2050 with the thinking being that we're ahead of Ace on the 40 reduction that's already been achieved and that you just heard a
101very careful analysis that we think can get us to the 85 85 reduction another 10 years ahead of New York State's legislative goal so we present that ambitious goal um with the board tonight we're also we did talk about this in the committee mindful of the idea that to model for our students the idea of presenting and working towards an ambitious goal that we've done enough calculations that we think it's certainly possible can we say with 100 certainty that it's achievable no but we think the idea that setting that Target and working with all our might towards it is the right model to set for our students also and that you know as as Steve and Marco pointed out with all the unknowns to come perhaps it will become increasingly possible over time and will
102certainly be in good shape if we're working as hard as we can in that direction I want to thank the committee for all the work and Rory for your leadership and for all the other committee members in Danelle and Mary and all the time that you put in um and all the analysis actually from our o m Department we want I want to acknowledge Paul Christensen who's done a tremendous amount of work over the years and I know Mike Mike Lavoy is working closely with him and we'll pick that work up uh and we are already in the we're having the works our next inventory uh and we refer to them as the Cameron Cole reports another one will be in the work soon so that will give us the most up-to-date information so we're
103really excited about that but I think with that we are ready to leave the proposal in the hands of the board I think we want to make sure we say thank you to all the members I know that the rest of our committee is in the audience tonight so thank you to Stephen and to Kim and DeMark and to Stephen all called out here into the board members Rory and Julia and Catherine ostrich also thanks to everybody and I think at that point we simply put the recommendation before the board and ask what they're hello Rory please can I just say um Danelle has been instrumental Paul Christensen as he correctly said Mary has been at every meeting and has been passionate and driving change across the curriculum Andrew we appreciate your leadership thank you
104and I really want to also recognize as we're talking about history here starting way back in 2005 uh Janet Harkin was in the audience Janet thank you so much for your continued engagement leadership I know you're not on the committee anymore but we think and talk about you regularly and we appreciate all that you've done Mark who's a leader in his field and a super contributor to our district we would be lost without both you and Steve also a leader in your field and the amount of contributions that you lend to klsd the amount that I and other members of the Border are are learning from you guys we really appreciate it uh Kim and Steve who are sitting at the back there very quietly thank you guys for all of the contributions and the
105support and the amount of energy you put in outside of our committee meetings I know um Kim you've been setting up those wonderful coffee mornings over at Greenway on Friday mornings to get everybody together to think about how we navigate all of this really super prepare um wonderful um just drive towards towards making this happen and we do it for ourselves obviously but for the kids and and um it's really great for us I believe to have all of those students come out and speak the way that they did it renews our passion and energy and lastly Marjorie Marjorie lastly but not least you led this committee for many years this is the first year that you've not been on it but you've also been instrumental in your leadership in driving home sustainability across the
106district so we really appreciate it so just a lot of thank yous um to everybody and a lot of other people besides who've been participating thank you did I mention oh did I mention Catherine I don't know if I did Catherine yeah thank you guys yes thank you all of you and um I know that we are eager to talk about the recommendation on the table and certainly you'll help us to know what action if any you need from the board either tonight or at an upcoming meeting but I just want to start by repeating something that was said just a couple of minutes ago which is to say that I don't think we could feel more proud to be part of this school district to be part of this New York state public school
107district and we feel right now tonight to see the partnership not only with our community members who are still with us here this evening and with our staff on behalf of our students but also with other community organizations that are represented and the resources that you are making available to our students on a daily basis cross grade levels across all five of our buildings now you know this really does feel in many ways like the culmination of a lot of work and conversation that has ensued for years um and and we feel very grateful to watch all of this unfold not just tonight where it was served up on a silver platter but you know to be able to Envision all of the work that's happening in our schools on a daily basis in our
108classrooms after school before school it's incredible it also feels timely insofar as the sustainability subcommittee has so carefully and thoughtfully engaged with historical data year after year after year to be very cognizant of our Trends and our opportunities and because our community just supported us in this Bond referendum this is just and and because of New York State legislation and Leadership at the state level I should also add you know this really feels like an amazing opportunity to position klsd for the future you know in part because we have been so attentive to our Trends and our progress over a long period of time we are as far as public school districts go we are uniquely well positioned to thoughtfully propose a goal that is ambitious um and so I'll just you know I'll pause
109here with those remarks and just with that sentiment of gratitude we feel very proud very grateful and very eager to hear board colleagues and and from you in terms of what you might need from us next and I'll open it up to everybody I'm sorry that not all the students are here but to the students who are here thank you for what you've done and what you've shared with us I think hearing our students really talk about the real crisis that they face and the concerns that they have is very compelling and certainly makes me know and you know we had discussions with the committee about is this too aggressive of a goals should we you know slow it down a little so we make sure we can meet it but hearing their voices and
110their concern really makes me confident that this aggressive goal is the right decision for the committee to make and it really I hope is a message to our student body that we hear them and that the concerns they have about the growing challenges of our you know out there I was talking to one of the students who did a study of Plastics in the ocean that said You Know by 2040 there will be relatively no fish in our oceans and I hear that and it's really very it is scary and um I think I think we can offer an opportunity to try to make change happen and they they seem really enthusiastic and excited to be engaged in that and grateful that their voices are being heard so thank you to our faculty and all
111of our Administration and staff who are making sure that their voices are heard and finding ways for them to not only have that voice but then to whatever the increased Miller was so great it was plan collaborate right plan collaborate something and then activate and they talked about learn plan collaborate collaborate activate and um they're doing that and it's really just remarkable to see and I think I was listening to um a podcast that talked about actually the footprint of public schools in our country and the fact that they are one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions because we educate all of our children and there's you know children in school every day almost year round in some you know depending on the state and that's a huge impact so being one of
112the school districts that's trying to to move the needle on that is really something remarkable so thank you very much for tonight and for everyone who's here and made it such a really interesting opportunity for us to learn more thank you I wanted to say thank you to our very bold and brave students who were here tonight I was so impressed and um thank you to everyone who was involved in this presentation um you know to hear a student say my opinion matters and um to hear teachers talking about um wanting their students to see that they can make things happen is is really it feels to me very true to the mission of education and learning and I am very impressed with everything I saw tonight so thank you all I'm trying to organize
113my thoughts because I feel like there's so much that we just took in so much um I I think everybody's uh presentation tonight really spoke to um the power of a public school as a Civic Institution that is like this can be the center of the community and can be the center of change in our community for good and that being kind of led by our students so I was really really moved by that um and and like the school as as the place of study so kind of that that very meta aspect of we're learning here we're doing here we're making change here and then Julia just hearing you kind of make that connection to the larger systemic change so students are learning how to make systemic change within our own system and then
114making that link to larger systemic change and sort of having that experience here is amazing and to hear students already aware of that that your voice does matter we are listening and you are leading the way uh probably Beyond where we can even see um I will say that somebody who grew up Recycling and sort of seeing recycling change over time it was very natural and when it doesn't happen it's always so you don't recycle here like that's so weird and yet there's I know my children and just hearing hear you you all are already so ahead of us on what the next things are that we need to do so students teaching us students teaching teachers and then students teaching our whole Community I think this is an amazing example of that so thank
115you for sharing that um I did have a couple questions that I just wanted to put out on the table after listening um so one very basic question which is how many students are on the Green Team and how many students can how do students join if they're interested yeah I don't know that I have a total um we could certainly tell you a few from middle and high school um and I think Lara said there were 21 at Meadow Pond well yeah and I guess is it open to all students or is it yeah okay and and all students I mean it sounds like these presentations this week are really going to introduce more students to the idea of the Green Team two assemblies yeah yeah students who may not be as aware will
116certainly but all whole years remember oh yeah that was a wonderful presentation we hope to actually get the word out of it I think Austin deserves a round of appearance and um great examples thank you that actually happened hmm yeah and I really I just did to kind of build on that we were saying is the the connections that are being made internally within the school across the schools as well as with outside local organizations and that idea of kind of we have every we have everything there's so much expertise within our own community and how do we kind of connect with that so students have that connection here but also to The Wider community and seeing themselves in it and being heard in it um my other question which just disappeared is um I
117was curious kind of as these changes are happening around like particularly oil stitching from oil systems to other types of systems um is it is it currently cost effective or at some point do we expect that it will become cheaper you know kind of like what is the cost analysis of that over time and and with that I just want to also add I really appreciated the comprehensive look at the energy usage both the direct and the um sort of secondary and tertiary um impact and so I think I guess that question you don't have to answer it now but just kind of how does it I think I think like in the short term sometimes like for example electric vehicles are more expensive than other vehicles in some ways right until the kind of
118the economics don't necessarily match up with where we want to go um at the moment but maybe over in the like with a larger financial analysis it does already look like that so it's a question I remember oh no go ahead well I was just going to say that we we have looked at the cost of like electric vehicles he said that they are more expensive but there the cost is more upfront and then over time they showed to be um actually less the same expense if not less over time it depends on how long you have that that vehicle on the road and then there's a shift in those expenses too so geothermal at KES our electric bill will go up um however our dependent bill on fossil fuels we will see a drastic
119reduction in that uh people planet and profit so when I joined Janet remembers this and Mark on 2012. um Mike jumper I think was under and it's great danella to have you here too like as we look at all these projects and we thought about this inventory and the reduction we took those three p's into account so you know our the students the people the citizens how is the planet benefiting from each project that we and of course the profit piece at return on investment so there's always an Roi there's always a calculation that goes into each piece of equipment and Paul Christensen um over the 10 11 years that I've served here on the committee has always taken into account you know what's the the payback how many years does it take to fix
120this and we went into a number of different initiatives on that chart you can see the EPC our energy performance contract and Honeywell and all the lighting retrofits every light bulb in every building here is Led um they look like two fluorescents but they're actually LED it's incredible like you walk in you would never know that there was this major Lighting Red retrofit that reduced tons of emissions and reduced our power bills so little things like that I shouldn't say they're little little things that add up to be really big things make a difference for the school district and save us money so that was always something that I had learned in business in my professional career is it's good for the planet but it's also good for the bottom line so thank you I
121just want to say one thing too I think it's important to understand that this is a lot of this is done under the capital planning process and when you do that you know it's a pretty it's a no-brainer you know obviously you could also remove stuff today and replace it but that doesn't really make a lot of sense when there's still life in this equipment I think if you take it in that context it makes total sense financially and environmentally thank you so I just want to briefly recap some of the comments that we heard about our culture tonight as we organize our thoughts for what we're potentially going to do next we heard our students talk about being educated to make responsible choices we heard them characterize their learning by saying we are taking
122charge of our learning we're learning to think for ourselves we're creating a culture of conservation and student leadership this is a place where student voices are uplifted and respected this is a school district where I feel that I'm not the only person who cares and where we're using student voice to drive curricular changed some of the aspects of our culture that we heard from our students and their own words tonight and I hope that that helps us to feel empowered and authorized to take some action on their behalf and if you'll please just you know help us to understand what might happen next that would be helpful we so we don't think we need a resolution from the board tonight and we don't have a resolution on the agenda but we do need to know
123if the board the majority of the board accepts the goal that was presented tonight so that we can know what our Target is for moving forward so the goal on the table is to aim for an 85 reduction in emissions by the year 2040 and if there are any further questions we're happy to take them and if there aren't we would just like to hear whether the Board needs to ask any further questions or are you ready tonight you need some time to think about it or are you ready tonight to let us know that you want to give us the go-ahead on that goal are you Lana please another question which is I'm I'm certainly in support of this I really like the idea of being ambitious being a leader sort of following hearing
124the students and and taking concrete action to affirm what they're talking about and doing what we can where we are um I'm curious as sort of taking on an ambitious goal that's going to be sort of 10 years in advance of the state is there anything we would also perhaps be taking on with that to share with other people to share with other districts perhaps to share around you know kind of as we're doing this we don't want we want to do it here but how do we use that also to inspire or be a springboard for other areas too I'm sorry I got a little bit distracted when you're asking a question I apologize for that but I was really trying to focus and I felt excited to share with you that through Westchester
125Putnam County School Board Association we have had opportunity in the past to contribute some of our learning and we might very well be at a place where we have even more that we can offer you know to sort of circle back on where we left off and and we have been um hopeful and inspirational to other districts in the past I think it's safe to say that with the pandemic and fewer opportunities to really be you know shining the spotlight in the manner that we are today although we did have a lovely celebration last year too we managed to pull that off but this is a great time to think about doing more um and you know and even potentially well I I imagine on board does a huge readership past what we're doing but
126yeah there are there are venues to to shine the light on our work and even presentations uh you know certainly Andrew and Mary Danelle they participate in their professional respective professional conferences um there's New York State School Board Association where it could be envisioned that um you know we would propose a presentation at a National Conference or at a state conference or that sort of thing just some ideas that come to mind thanks for thinking of that so if there aren't any other further comments I think you have the the general direction that you're looking for I think we feel excited and and and and somewhat newly hopeful thank you for proposing this yeah thank you thank you thank you [Applause] we really thank our presenters and you know thank you all for the tremendous
127coordination and effort that it took to pull off this multifaceted evening and presentation thank you okay I think this brings us to our opportunity for public comment and we are happy to be joined by some members of the community if you haven't had a chance to sign up we do have a laptop in the back and you're welcome to sign up in the Excel spreadsheet to speak with us and at the moment I am aware that Samantha Hirsch is waiting to say a few words if you would please join us at the podium good evening I'm Samantha Hirsch I am the parent of a first grader at increased Miller I have addressed the board a few times in various roles and capacities uh the first thing I'd like to say is I'm always so blown
128away when we have student speakers at the board and today's presentations uh the sustainability celebration and listening to students at all levels of this District speak so passionately about matters that are important to them and important to the global Community really just invigorates me and makes me so proud to be part of this community and to be a parent here and raising my child in this District so thank you I I want to thank the teachers for inspiring students to really take on this act of like we have this klsd commitment to Active Learning and it's so evident and you have these students at again all levels who are advocating acting teaching other students teaching parents this is true authentic learning at its finest and I am just so impressed um tonight it was evident
129that the district is committed to incorporating sustainability into the curriculum and that we are empowering our students with the Knowledge and Skills that they need to become responsible Global Citizens who care about the environment protect it sustainability also is not just about protecting the environment but also creating sustainable communities and economies that promote social justice and equity the other thing I'd like to say is that I am I'd like to use this time to share with the community that I'm running for the Board of Education as a writing candidate this means that while my name will not be on the ballot there is a space where you could write my name Samantha h-i-r-s-h Samantha Hirsch um and for those of you who don't know me I just want to take a brief time to explain
130who I am I am in a very experienced educator running for the board to ensure that high quality education continues for every student in this District I have spent my entire career deeply committed to ensuring that all children have access to a high quality inclusive education that is relevant to their lives education is a transformative experience that should Empower students to become lifelong Learners critical thinkers and responsible citizens and I believe in the importance of a Rel rounded in education that prepares students for both academic and personal success and that that success looks different for every single child that is within the district and community additionally I am aware that there are some children who are unintentionally left out of the best learning outcomes for them and I strive truly so that for all children
131to tap into their potential my priorities are centered around the principles of creating a sustainable and Equitable learning environment that prioritizes diversity inclusion belonging and social emotional learning for all students to advance every learner as a parent and educator I know that social emotional learning otherwise known as cell or SEL improves helps to improve kids academic performance curtailed bullying reduce Dropout rates and build character a well-integrated scl approach and practices that are part of everyday instruction and every interaction positively affects students success in schools additionally applying inclusive concepts with SEL leads to an environment that strives to serve the needs of all students regardless of their background Identity or ability supports their engagement with subject material as well as healthy relationships with each other and reflects the full measure of the subject matter incorporating diverse
132perspectives and sources of knowledge and experience I believe that I am uniquely qualified to serve on the board as I bring not only my expertise as an educator but my passion as a parent for continual growth and Improvement of the school community at Large my student-centered Approach commitment to inclusivity and my well-rounded experience as an educator make me the perfect choice for the Katonah lewisboro School District Board of Education thank you thank you is anybody else waiting to speak please I'm always waiting to speak I'm Janet harkum I have two children that graduated who are both getting married this year um you guys I just cannot say enough about the progress holistically that the district has made it now doesn't feel like those circles are disparate and different focuses it feels like it's a fully
133integrated holistic approach to systems thinking and and sustainability but you know we talk about sustainability a lot but really it's just Global citizenry responsible caring um thoughtful living and it's it's a worldwide you know effort and what I wanted to say is the goals we said in 20 by 2015. was for a greenhouse gas goal that no one knew what greenhouse gases where no one knew how to do it no one knew what we were doing and Bedford 2020 which is a very Progressive organization was fed for 20 20 by by 20 2020. we set 20 by 2015 because we were we we realized that China has a heat wave right now that the the Glaciers are melting that Africa is going to have we're going to have a billion potential climate refugees over the
134next number of years and doing it any later is actually irresponsible so I want to remind you that you're not only taking action to be proud of you're taking essential action action that is necessary so not only are we leaders we're leaders that have like a positive um an ability to affect change in a positive manner that shows a methodical planned way to get to a goal that is terrifying and the children need to learn this is one of the things I I noticed that you know it was surprising to me the climate anxiety that they're experiencing verbalizing so clearly and I think we do just subtly need to just mention it's still possible to all our students to remind them that it's still possible that we can reduce any small increment that we reduce
135greenhouse gases is going to help and you know so we are doing a very good thing and and the carbon equivalent that we talk about methane in a carbon equivalent all the things in carbon equivalent it's a global greenhouse gas it if what we do here actually affects the world's greenhouse gas and just to remind just the little science lesson before I go the reason we're doing this is because from the top of the Earth to the top of the uh where where we can breathe the the stratosphere it's only it's about something like 10 miles it's not very far it's it's like I think you can drive a car in 10 minutes 60 miles or something it's very very very very small that's where all of the of the greenhouse gases are where all
136the weather is it's a tiny little layer around the Earth's surface and that's what we use as an open sewer and so we aren't doing that we're not going to do that we're going to be responsible with our emissions and with our students and with their learning and I cannot thank you enough it's really fun to hear the kids deal with problems in a clear way and see solutions for themselves and hope in others it's really every problem they have in life should be dealt with that way like that they you know they have a big problem they're they identify the problem they identify the feeling they identify peers and supporters and people that can help them it is the best learning tool so it's going to go well beyond just sustainability so thank you
137so much for everything thank you anybody else waiting to speak tonight hello as you all know I already spoke previously but I just like to reiterate that I appreciate so much the board's willingness to hear student voices we've heard appreciation from the audience and from the board but as a student I can't thank you enough for the opportunity to speak openly and to affect positive change because I truly feel that through you this is the best way that students can impact our district so thank you again thank you thank you anybody else waiting if not then thank you again to community members for being with us and for speaking with us during the public comment we really appreciate hearing from you and we will now close the public comment period and move forward to the
138consent agenda um recalling of course that we already took action on three consent agenda items but I'm happy to move the remainder of the consent agenda if I could have a second please thank you Liz and just a reminder that we're here on a Tuesday and not on a Thursday because this is the night when all of the school districts in New York state in in the region or New York State actually now that I think about it it's in our region our region for sure potentially within the state are taking action on OC's budgets and proposed BOCES budgets and their elections so we did receive materials from our regional Northern Westchester um OCS pertaining both to our portion of the administrative budget and also with respect to I believe three Trustees for three seats
139an uncontested election I don't know whether there are any questions about the materials that we received um you know oftentimes at this time of year we are reminded that our formula for determining our portion of the BOCES budget is a little unique in this region it's based on a combination of our District's wealth and also our enrollment and I'm sure Janelle can say more about it if anybody has any questions about that um that's all I've got just a reminder that we're taking action on those materials in addition to all of the rest that's on the consent agenda and I didn't know if anybody had any questions or comments please Alana um and we've had a couple sort of presentations relating to parts of the BOCES program that have been really amazing and I was
140just curious this is I think a question just to kind of put out there which is how our district thinks about BOCES and kind of like what the longer if there's sort of a vision of how BOCES may be integrated more or less particularly around the um Career and Technical education aspects and I know Stephen spoke a little bit at one meeting about that but just kind of like looking forward and and also like looking back like have we had kind of Trends over time in our in our participation or how has that been you know not just student interest but what is kind of the district's interest in that type of education we continue to really value our partnership with BOCES enormously um they provide really amazing resources that we're not able to provide
141as a local school district the number of our students probably does vary a little bit from year to year I couldn't without going back and looking at the data I wouldn't want to speak to what a particular trend is but um for those students who either have particular interests or have particular needs they have resources because they're Regional and they serve 18 component districts that we see none of the local districts can have on their own but they're enormously valuable for that reason um and it's also true to say that they have tremendous resources that in some cases because the distance to travel there sometimes there's a tension for a student who might want to partake in something but they also want to partake in the all the offerings you know think of think about
142the all the rich offerings here at John Jay High School and there's a tension between wanting to spend either half your day there versus spending it here so that probably tempers a little bit the number but for those who you know truly know where their interests lie if they're in very specific areas of the BOCES office that local districts aren't able to offer it's a great resource and a huge number of courses or professional learning that our teachers have access to so although we're very fortunate here to be able to five staff developers and do lots of work within the district they are such a helpful supplement to everything we do we couldn't possibly offer all of the options that they provide so it's really helpful in that way yeah and I think it's fair
143to say that's a particular focus of the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES that they really Pride themselves on the professional learning services that they provide thank you any other comments or questions on the consent agenda not then we can go ahead and vote all in favor please say aye aye wonderful five zero thank you and that brings us to board dialogue and discussion if there are any topics new business old business I feel better when Janet harcum says it is still possible appreciated those words um if there are no further topics then that brings us to Future meetings so the board is next going to meet just next week on Thursday May 4th 7 30 p.m here in the library in between now and then looks like audit is scheduled to meet this Thursday at seven
144o'clock and policy scheduled to meet this Friday at 9 00 A.M sustainability subcommittee meeting again on Friday May 5th special voter registration thank you so much to Kim monzin for coordinating that on Saturday May 6th 9 A.M to 3 P.M in the district office the annual budget vote in election is upcoming on Tuesday May 16th polling locations are at respective elementary schools 6 a.m to 3 P.M polls will be open nine PM pardon me I'm so sorry what am I reading the wrong thing oh it's just thank you 6 a.m to 9 00 p.m thank you um and then the board will meet again Thursday May 18th 7 30 PM policy committee 9 A.M Friday May 26th finance committee 7 PM Wednesday May 31st hopefully I didn't miss anything there and that brings us to
145an opportunity to adjourn somebody would like to make a motion thank you Rory moved by Rory Liz all in favor please say aye aye 5-0 thank you so much everybody have a good night thank you