Over the span of two years, Poly High School student Diana Michaelson grew two inches. What may seem inconsequential to some is symbolic for her, she said, because it represented her growth within the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD).
During that time, she went from being a sophomore in high school with hopes to create environmental change to a rising senior empowered by the experience of creating a policy to ensure her school district adopts clean renewable energy.
On Monday, that experience came to a head during a LBUSD Board of Education vote on a green energy policy that would transition LBUSD off of fossil fuels and decrease water and energy consumption. After much anticipation on behalf of student groups, the vote was postponed until August 17 to work on including a specific timeline for goal achievements.
LBUSD’s Green Schools Operations Energy Policy 3510.1 intends to address climate change and promote environmental justice through actions such as “ensuring all new and replacement machinery is zero-emissions” and developing a phase-out plan for any current machinery that still depends on fossil fuels.
This new policy is based on the Green Schools Operations Policy 3510, which was written by the California School Board Association and approved by LBUSD in November of 2019. The new policy, however, has been a product of collaboration between district workers, students and teachers.
More specifically, the sustainability engagement consisted of three groups. Firstly, the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign (LBGSC), the Facilities Master Plan Committee and the LBUSD Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee. There was also overlap among the three as members had the option to participate in more than one committee.
“It just shows their passion for this particular topic,” David Miranda, executive director of facilities development and planning, said.
The Green Schools Campaign has been consistently showing up at board meetings and advocating for a 100% clean energy resolution since 2020.
“It’s an amazing process to work together, [to] literally type words and see them get included in the document,” said Michaelson, who is also the founder of LBGSC. “That has been a really empowering opportunity that I’ve had.”
“Never could I have imagined that this campaign would grow the way it did. reaching students, teachers, parents and community leaders all around Long Beach,” recent Poly graduate and LBGSC member Kaaya Batra said. “It has been so inspiring to see how many of us share the same passion for the environment, and the same goal of transforming our city and schools into a more sustainable one.”
The policy has three clear implementation goals: the establishment of a sustainability task force, further research and engagement on remaining green school practices, and future policy updates.
Miranda also pointed out that sustainability was not only present in the new Green School Operations Energy Policy but it has also been a crucial component and influence in the Facilities Master Plan—a data-driven roadmap for facility enhancement and improvement.
Although the board was set to vote for policy approval on Monday, Board member Juan Benitez made a motion for the vote to be moved to the next board meeting to allow for the inclusion of stronger language that “sets targets for us in terms of dates and timelines to uphold the commitments expressed in the policy.”
“The thing that stood out to me was when [Miranda] expressed that we’re actually doing more in our district and our vision,” Benitez said. “Our goal has always been to lead, not just to do things out of compliance.”
The motion was seconded by Board member Erik Miller.
“I love the policy and the process that you all went through to get where we are today. But with any goal, I would not feel comfortable if we didn’t set overarching goals and timelines attached to it,” Miller said.
Benitez emphasized that the policy is not being tabled, “it is being made stronger.”
“The meat, the heart of the policy remains the same; what we’re including here are some dates and timelines for the aspirational part of the goals,” he said.
Via an Instagram post on July 19, LBGSC said they viewed the motion as exciting news that the policy document will be made stronger.
Despite the demonstration of gratitude towards the board throughout the public comment portion of the meeting from various GSC members and supporters, board member Diana Craighead said she “does not feel worthy of all the praise” as it is the students who deserve it more.
“Students have shown so much determination and grit and persistence. You have had a clear vision of what you’ve wanted and you have wanted us to pay attention to what’s going on with the climate change in the environment and you have wanted us to take action,” Craighead said. “And I just want to say that can’t be understated, that we don’t take that for granted.”
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