Issue #10 Real Sustainability

Problems:

Schools support communities and neighbourhoods, and have a duty to be responsible community players. Over the last 10 years we’ve seen our school grounds increasingly chained up, gated, and made less welcome for neighbours. Friendly users are given the message to keep out, leaving the schools alone to the vandals. These are public lands, and should be open to the public.

Sustaining communities also means being stewards of our resources. Useful surplus equipment (e.g. from closed schools) should not be thrown out, but recycled or donated. It is still not known what has happened to surplus sewing machines, stoves, fridges, pottery and shop equipment from schools closed in 2010.  Either they have been thrown out or their whereabouts have not been properly reported.  The disposal was done quietly and kept out of the press.  Outrageous - this wasn’t junk - these were valuable assets in good repair according to staff from John McInnis and Lakewood. What is known is that hundreds of computers have been thrown out over the last two years, aging but still of use if the district didn't block donations. The issue of a principal throwing out school supplies was in the media this year, but that appears to be an isolated event rather than a pattern.

We need to recover carbon. Currently, school groups that organize efforts to green their school grounds are discouraged, being told that mown grass is preferable to trees and natural vegetation. Our district pays $150,000 per year (? please confirm) in carbon taxes based on the size of its footprint. The Highglen Montessori solar panel project is good start - Dave Leman’s efforts show us an example of something our school district should be prioritizing.

Some of our school groups have attempted to green their school grounds, like install gardens or replant trees that were cut down during the Pine Beetle outbreak. They are told that it is too expensive to do groundskeeping around new plantings, and most of these projects are denied. School grounds can be a place of wonder and beauty for students, and a lot of this has to do with trees. A few trees have been successfully planted, but we should be talking about stands of trees, little forests - thinking 100 years ahead!

Solutions:

Engage neighbourhoods and make use of social capital (the power of motivated people). Imagine how productive the board and board office could be if they became less adversarial with parent groups and said yes more often. Allow municipalities to assume after-hours liability in school grounds if that is why the chains and gates have gone up, and send the message that public school grounds are common ground.

Be public, open, and honest about what happens when a school closes. Donate, repurpose, or auction all surplus equipment and do not throw out usable assets. Appoint a trustee, PAC, or DPAC member to monitor disposal of assets. Our district has gained the reputation of being wasteful and it will take some serious effort to correct this impression.

We need to be more aggressive in reducing our carbon emissions and footprint, perhaps even recovering credits by sponsoring an offset project. To register these with the Pacific Carbon Trust, they would have to be completed by a third party to qualify as schools are currently excluded. They also need to involve something new that didn’t already exist in some form. Installation of outdoor learning space that involves carbon-capturing features (like trees) would qualify. 

Encourage tree planting and garden projects at many school sites in the district. Many of these projects already have volunteer help and funding lined up, so this does not have to be a new expenditure. Look beyond just making school grounds attractive and look for connections for environmental education and outdoor learning spaces.


Offer small incentives for teachers and schools to involve students in greening projects. What a great accomplishment it would be for a student to be involved with an innovative carbon capture project or the start of a new urban forest.