SMMUSD presents new plan for district sustainability

SMMUSD finished drafting their “Plan for Districtwide Sustainability” at the beginning of November and on Nov. 13, completed their first presentation of it at a town hall meeting at Will Rogers Community Learning School.The development of the plan was spearheaded by Caroline Coster, the district wide sustainability coordinator, Emma Sorrell, plan author and sustainability consultant from Cumming corporation and Carry Upton, SMMUSD chief operations officer. The process of developing the plan began about a year ago after a group of students from Samo and Malibu High (in particular Samo’s Team Marine) came to present at a board meeting arguing that the district had been discussing sustainability for too many years without taking comprehensive action and that it was time for change. “The board listening to that decided that even though we had a number of projects happening and in the works, it was time for us to adopt a more consciousness and clearer plan about how we could become a more sustainable district,” Upton said.A second presentation had been planned for Nov. 14 at Malibu High School, however it has been rescheduled due to the Woolsey fire. The revised plan (after comments and concerns from the town halls have been considered) will be presented to the Board of Education in late January or early February. If approved, sustainability initiatives will begin immediately and add to the current sustainability systems and programs in place. The plan intends to unite current SMMUSD sustainability initiatives, incorporate sustainability education into district schools and integrate sustainable practices into the day-to-day operations of the district. With this plan, the committee hopes the district can make itself more quick to recover from any future environmental issues.Currently, the plan highlights seven topic areas: education and engagement, energy efficiency and renewables, water, solid waste, transportation, food nutrition and wellness and green buildings and operations. Though many in the community support this plan, it was met with critique during the Q&A session, with many arguing the projected timeline is either too drawn-out (when the dire reality of climate change is considered) or that the plan skipped over key areas of needed improvement for the district. “The timeline needs to be shortened because we should not lose an entire generation of children because we [adults] are too slow at implementing the goals of this plan. Do not wait until 2025, but 2019 at the latest, but it should actually begin changing this year. Also, although I encourage recycling… We need to focus on having less stuff to recycle,” Judy Abdo, Santa Monica’s liason to the Metropolitan Water District Board said.