Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - 8:13 am
Assistant Superintendent of Operations Lori Ames and MHS students Daphne Wu and Amalia Morner shared a student-initiated sustainability resolution that addresses sustainability from an operational, educational and cultural perspective at the Board of Education meeting at Kromrey Middle School on Monday, March 8. The resolution was reviewed at the Finance Committee meeting on Feb 22. The Board is expected to vote on the resolution at its meeting on March 22.
Ames noted Morner and Wu have been very committed to moving sustainability efforts forward and reducing the District's carbon footprint along with helping on climate change. The students and other members of the MHS Green Team Club approached Ames a year ago about a resolution, but the efforts were put on hold due to the pandemic.
"Sustainability covers so many areas and has so many definitions and that is what this resolution does,'' Ames said.
Ames noted the resolution would impact the entire District and involve lots of partners, including the City of Middleton and Dane County, with a goal of finding funding and projects that the organizations can work on together.
Ames also noted the District is working on developing baselines in order to evaluate how efforts are doing. The plan is to develop metrics and report to the School Board at least once a year on how the District did, progress made and what new goals have been established. Information from 2019 was used to create goals about reducing water and waste as 2020 data may not be viable because of the pandemic, Ames said.
Ames also noted that last month Wu was one of two Wisconsin honorees to be selected as the top high school youth volunteer as part of the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.