Students Win First Step Towards More Climate Education

New Haven students want to learn more about climate change in school. This week, the Board of Education committed to helping them make that happen.

New Haven Climate Movement’s big push at the Board of Education resulted in a promise to form a committee or subcommittee focused on climate justice.

“Our generation will truly be the last to reverse the disastrous impacts of climate change. How are we going to do that if we are forced to research it entirely by ourselves?” asked student Julia Kosinski.

The youth-led organization won support from the Board of Alders a year ago for a ​“climate emergency” resolution that cited Earth’s proximity to a point of no return with climate change. In the resolution, alders committed to educating New Haveners about the emergency and helping to mobilize for change.

Students affiliated with New Haven Climate Movement were already working with the Board of Education on food waste in cafeterias when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. They have also been ramping up requests in recent months for more change in school curricula.

“We feel that not much action has been done,” said NHCM student leader Kiana Flores, who attends Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School.

The youth activists submitted their plan for change, the Climate Justice Schools Initiative, to the board last Friday. They collected over 750 supporters of more climate education in schools with an online petition. Individual activists then testified why they support the plan during the public comment section of Monday’s meeting.

When one of the board’s student representatives, Lihame Arouna, championed the proposal during her section of Monday evening’s meeting, board members rushed to support her.

“We need to focus real time and real energy on this issue that students are yearning for,” Arouna said.

Arouna said that starting a board committee seems like the most effective next step. She said that she already has student and teacher volunteers who could fill spots on the committee.

The only disagreement among board members was the best way to support Arouna’s request. Ed Joyner suggested creating a subcommittee under the Teaching and Learning Committee, which asked for a presentation on climate education last month. Darnell Goldson said that Arouna asked for a full committee, which could more easily cover operational changes too like recycling and food waste.

Eventually, the board unanimously voted to send the issue to the Teaching and Learning Committee to be discussed further there. The next Teaching and Learning Committee is scheduled for Aug. 19 at 4:30 p.m.

Climate Justice Schools

New Haven Climate Movement youth leaders developed the Climate Justice Schools proposal with the help of the local group, the Climate Health Education Project. It calls for students to spend 30 hours each year studying climate change and working on local solutions. Schools would also implement changes in the way they operate, like providing all vegetarian options on ​“Meatless Mondays.”

The proposal would roll out at five New Haven high schools first, where one teacher and two students would get stipends to lead each school’s program. This would cost $3,000 per school.

Read the full list of asks below.

Specifications

All schools in New Haven are strongly encouraged to become Climate Justice Schools in order to respond to the declared Climate Emergency. Climate Justice Schools prepare students for their future by informing them about the climate crisis, climate change, climate health, and climate justice. The CJS program will start with five interested high schools as of the fall of 2020, and will later expand to include all high schools and middle schools in New Haven.

In order for New Haven schools to become Climate Justice Schools, the New Haven Board of Education will encourage all participating schools to do all of the following:

• Implement at least 30 hours of climate change education per grade level per year in all area middle and high schools. This can be achieved across multiple subjects in each grade level (such as Science, English, Math, Social Studies, Unified Arts, Technology, and others) in order for students to have a well-rounded climate education. Additionally, seven of these hours may be fulfilled through school-wide activities such as School-Wide Project days and Climate Week activities. Climate Health Education Project (CHEP) is a free resource providing teachers of numerous subjects with climate curriculum, activities, and lesson plans which may be used to implement this program.
• Implement project-based learning surrounding solutions to climate change with the help of student interns. For example, year one’s project could focus on reducing greenhouse gases in school transportation through increasing walking, biking, and carpooling to school. Students may count their hours involved in project-based learning as community service.
• Encourage students to apply 10% or more of their required community service hours be fulfilled through climate change/sustainability-related community service opportunities. For schools that do not require community service, they should now require 10 hours of climate change/sustainability-related community service per student. The CHEP website has climate change service suggestions.
• Host a Climate Week every April in celebration of Earth Day. This week can include assemblies, activities, field trips, and assignments to get students excited about climate change and activism. This week will involve families in some way, such as: having students take home energy audits, family trivia night, hosting a Climate Fair, and/or having students interview their families about their knowledge of climate change.
• Recruit one teacher and two student interns (students from the school) in each CJS school to lead the climate change education and project based learning efforts in each school.

The Board of Education will also:

• Provide each participating school $3,000 for CJS expenses which will include one teacher stipend ($1000), two student intern stipends ($80/month x 9 months — $720), and $560 for printing and event expenses.
• Require school administrations to support student and faculty led climate initiatives.
• Take steps towards implementing district wide solutions to cut carbon and pollution such as:
  • Introducing ​“Meatless Mondays” in NHPS cafeterias using the Meatless Monday K‑12 Foodservice Program Guide.
  • Reducing greenhouse gas production in transportation.
  • Making school buildings more energy efficient.
  • Phasing out single-use plastics in cafeterias.

Milestones

1. The Board of Education commits to the process of making all New Haven Public Middle and High Schools Climate Justice Schools.
2. As soon as the Board of Education passes the CJS initiative, the Board of Education will implement a CJS pilot program in which the Board of Education chooses five interested New Haven high schools to begin implementing the Climate Justice School program at the start of the fall of 2020.
3. By the fall of 2021, all five New Haven schools will fully meet all specifications for Climate Justice Schools.
4. Making necessary CJS program adjustments based on the experience of the five pilot schools, all New Haven Area middle and high schools will then be strongly encouraged to declare themselves Climate Justice Schools and meet the Climate Justice School specifications by the fall of 2023.