MEDIA ADVISORY
San Diego Unified District Leaders to Join Students in Rally for First-of-its-Kind Youth Climate Action Resolution
WHAT: San Diego Unified students from multiple schools will join District leaders and environmental activists in rallying for the passage of the Youth Climate Action resolution on Tuesday. The resolution comes to the board in light of the Global Climate Strike and Walkout, planned September 20, 2019- September 27, 2019.
The San Diego Unified School District supports its students in calling for aggressive climate action at the local, national and global levels and participation in the Global Climate Walkout. San Diego Unified encourages all professional educators to support student walkout events in an effort to demonstrate educational outcomes.
WHEN: Tuesday, September 10, 2019
4:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
*Please note: the Board of Education meeting begins at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Eugene Brucker Education Center
4100 Normal Street, San Diego CA, 92103
VISUALS: Dozens of high school students holding banners and signs, parents, and
community members.
GUEST INTERVIEWS:
Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, San Diego Unified Board President
Richard Barrera, San Diego Unified Board Trustee
San Diego Unified High School Students
Masada Disenhouse, San Diego 350 Executive Director
BACKGROUND: The San Diego Unified School District's "Dream Big Solutions for a Sustainable Future" plan ensures district climate action and climate consciousness and its Climate Action Plan commits to 100% renewable energy by 2035.
Passed in 2017, the plan analyzes costs and benefits of each of the 13 Dream Big idea areas, including: sustainability achievements, committee and additional recommendations, prioritization in accordance with guiding principles, potential for revenue generation, cost containment, or reduction, cost to implement strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, an implementation plan, stakeholder involvement process, timeline for development and execution, as well as a requirement for dashboards and metrics.
The District is meeting the goals by retrofitting schools using Prop 39 (Clean Energy Jobs Act) funds to replace older systems with more efficient air conditioning and lighting systems. More than 29,000 lighting fixtures have been converted to LED, offsetting 1,300 metric tons of CO2 gas emissions. Projected District solar energy production by the end of 2020 will offset 8,100 metric tons of CO2.
Currently, the District has completed eight school solar projects in just the first phase of installation; there are currently 13 schools pending construction in the second phase, and 14 schools planned in the third phase of installation. These three solar phases will save the district approximately $3.6 million per year.
Through Propositions S & Z, San Diego Unified has also funded the construction of hundreds of acres of parks and green spaces through the joint-use partnership with the City of San Diego; and reduced litter and plastic waste by nearly 4.7 million pieces through the replacement of utensil packets with individual forks, spoons, and napkins.
In 2017, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) named San Diego Unified as the Energy Champion for Achievements in Energy Efficiency. In April 2019, SDG&E also named the District’s Ocean Discovery Institute in City Heights the Energy Champion for Efficiency.
Students from San Diego Unified have taken a leadership role in confronting global warming through participation in "Green Teams," recycling clubs, "Planet Protectors," and other student groups; and the "Love Food Not Waste" Program has prevented 202,775 pounds of prepared food from ending up in landfills, provided 169,120 meals to the hungry, reduced food costs, and eliminated 110,107 pounds of CO2 gas emissions.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jamie Ries, San Diego Unified Facilities Communication Liaison, 619-855-9283; jries@sandi.net;
Christopher Kracha (pronounced craysh-ah), San Diego 350, 858-255-9324, cjkracha@gmail.com;
Masada Disenhouse, San Diego 350, 619-277-4594, masada@sandiego350.org.
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