Congratulations to Chute Middle School 7th Grader Isabel Morales on winning the Recycling Wrap Art Design Competition in the Fall 2023! In honor of America Recycles Day, D65 students were asked to create a recycling truck art design to be displayed on a City of Evanston recycling truck.

Out of 29 designs and 675 votes, Isabel's art earned the most votes. Be on the look out for this beautiful butterfly buzzing around town.

The third annual District 65 PTA One Fund Native Plant Sale is live! Select from a wide variety of native plants, shrubs and trees and order by Tuesday, February 27. Proceeds from this district-wide plant sale helps fund every District 65 school via the PTA Equity Project's One Fund Initiative.

Pre-order pick-up will be held on Saturday, May 11 from 10am to 1pm in the Chute Middle School courtyard (1400 Oakton St., Evanston). A limited number of plants, shrubs, and trees will also be available for sale.

Donations to plant wildflowers and trees on D65 school grounds are also accepted.

Volunteers needed! Please sign up if you are able to help with setup on Thursday, May 9 or Friday, May 10, or assist at the sale on Saturday, May 11. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Things are looking brighter now that D65 completed LED Lighting upgrades last summer in our schools. Check out our positive impact stats improving lighting for students and educators while saving electricity and reducing carbon emissions.

Kudos to our Nutrition Services team this school year rolling out a few key sustainability initiatives including:

• Bringing back the bulk food carts in our schools after COVID. Benefits include more fruit and veggie choices for our students, increasing student choice in what they'd like for lunch therefore reducing food waste and packaging.
• Introducing reusable silverware at our JEH Early Childhood Center, including installation of a commercial dishwasher in the kitchen.
• Partnering with ETHS to purchase bulk items when possible as we strive to reduce packaging.

Schools are Gardening in Evanston (SAGE) seedling orders are open until February 20.

Questions? Contact SchoolsAreGardeninginEvanston@gmail.com

Enclosed are the final D65 watering best practices for our school gardens and grounds (trees, native plants). The guidance is intended to balance watering with being good stewards of water usage and costs to the district.

Check out our 2024 Earth Month plans.

Explore opportunities to get involved at your school: climate action project ideas and school projects sign-up. Encourage reaching out to your School Leaders to explore ways you can partner and engage at your school.

D65's Let's Recycle Better Together! is underway as a district wide project to improve recycling in all our buildings, Learn More (school recycling intro).

This month, we're kicking off our Guidelines Team comprised of D65 staff with a goal to create guidelines and best practices for landfill, recycling and compost in our buildings.

We need your help to grow a digital garden of sustainability and school garden ideas for District 65. Your ideas will us develop future focus areas & initiatives for climate action in our schools.

When: Wednesday March 13 from 10-11am CST

If you're interested in connecting about your school's sustainability practices, please set up a time to meet with me. Sign Up Here

Karen Bireta

D65 Sustainability Coordinator

Pronouns: she, her, hers

biretak@district65.net

Office Phone: 847-859-8156

• Do you have sustainability and/or school garden news to share from your school?
• Is there an upcoming community event you'd like to share?
• Found a cool resource to share with the community?

Email Karen Bireta, biretak@district65.net to include in an upcoming sustainability newsletter.

Join our Google Groups and help us grow our community! All are welcome to stay in touch and receive periodic updates on D65 climate action and school garden happenings.

• D65 Sustainability Focus: 23-24 School Year
  
• D65 Guidance for Climate Action and Gardens at Schools: 23-24 School Year
  
• D65 Sustainability and Garden Resources Library
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 22-23 School Year
• D65 Climate Action & Garden Community Contact List
• D65 Sustainability Website