D65 Sustainability Update: April 25

Motivate your students, club, or other group and light a spark of enthusiasm through action!

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Apply for a $200 Clean Up Grant to celebrate Earth Month or any other month of the year!

In 23-24 school year, D65 introduced a new OpenSciEd Unit 7.6 Earth's Resources and Human Impact (webinar, storyline) for 7th Grade.

In the Summer 2024, our D65 Science Team hosted a summer project focused on developing a refreshed 7th Grade Climate Action Project aligned to Unit 7.6 with a team of 7th Grade D65 Educators.

This winter our 7th Graders began Unit 7.6 Earth's Resources and Human Impact and over the past month, our D65 Educators began rolling out and engaging all our 7th Grade students in "Collective Action for Climate Justice" changemaking opportunity, check out our kick-off video below.

In order to inspire students and help them contribute to meaningful climate-related solutions, students are learning about a variety of changemaking efforts including (1) local Evanston-based initiatives, (2) Marginalized (most affected) communities and (3) youth-driven initiatives.

Looking Forward: Preparations are underway to host a school-based Spring Showcase during the school day with a Padlet available to share students changemaking efforts with families. Stay tuned for details from your 7th Grade Educators and Students.

At the April 7 Board Meeting, we presented our D65 Sustainability Plan and requested 4:70 Resource Conservation policy revisions to move our Plan into Policy. Thankful the presentation went well and the plan was warmly received by the School Board.

Looking forward:

1. Adoption of revised 4:70 Resource Conservation Policy at May 5 School Board Meeting.

2. Share our D65 Sustainability Plan publicly and celebrate! Polish our plan in partnership with D65 Communications Team.

3. Move forward with Implementation, in partnership with our D65 Sustainability Leadership Team.

4. Annual reporting progress towards our Sustainability Goals by creating a public dashboard.

5. Complete periodic reviews and plan updates.

Thank you to our working group for your passion, time and dedication in moving this important work forward.

D65 is hosting an End of School Clean Out from May 21 - June 6, learn more about this year's process and timeline.

Did you know? In 2024, D65 had 7 schools participate and collected over 200 boxes of new and gently used school supplies. We encouraged sharing and reuse within our schools and D65 Families and restocked the school supply closets at Haven. Remaining items were donated to D65 Family Wellness Program, Art Makers Outpost (local) and SCARCE. We’re excited to do it again this year!

Good news, thanks to all our schools composting in the lunchrooms, our D65 school gardens are eligible for 50-gallons of free finished compost via Collective Resource Compost Giveaway. Sign-up here for your free compost pick-up (dates below and noted in the sign-up sheet). Pickup is at The Talking Farm in Skokie and the person picking up will need to bring something to transport the finished compost (their own buckets, paper grocery bags, empty nursery pots, tarps... )

• Sunday, April 27 1:00-4:00 pm,
• Wednesday, April 30 5:00-7:00 pm,
• Saturday, May 3 2:00–5:00 pm,
• Tuesday, May 6 5:00-7:00 pm, open to the public
• Sunday, May 11 1:00-4:00 pm, open to the public

Questions? Contact the Collective Resource Team at customerservice@collectiveresourcecompost.coop.

Interested in planting new trees on our D65 school grounds this Fall? Make sure to use our refreshed D65 collaboration & approval process and submit your request by May 31.

NEW - Approved Tree and Shrubs for D65 School Grounds to use when planning your tree planting requests.

In Progress - development of school maps to identify viable spaces for new tree plantings, in partnership with Natural Habitat Evanston and our D65 Team. Our goal is to complete by the end of this school year.

Spring Seasonal Practice from April - May 15, reminder to our native planting stewards to trim or cut back any large plants that overwintered to make room for new spring growth.

Please update the Maps of Native Plantings on D65 School Grounds to identify existing native plantings on your school grounds including contact names / emails / phone numbers for the person / team stewarding each native planting area.

Through the perspectives of four collaborating artists with connections to Zhegagoynak—Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) —Woven Being explores confluences that are continuing to shape Indigenous creative practices in the region and beyond.

Collaborating artists have partnered with The Block to create “constellations” of their own artwork and historical and contemporary artworks, primarily by Indigenous artists of the region. Overall Woven Being will present more than 80 works by 33 artists that speak to the diversity of Indigenous art, materials, and time, including several new and commissioned works and installations. Selections highlight themes we have identified in dialogue with diverse project advisors: kinship between materials, relations across regional landways and waterways, and the weaving together of past, present, and future.

Exhibition at The Block Museum is open through July 13, Learn More.

Calling all SWANCC member communities....Schools, Libraries, and now, Nonprofits are all available to apply for a $500 Waste Reduction Grant!

Do you have an idea for Waste Reduction and need a bit of financial support? Don't wait, apply for a grant today! Need more time to be creative and think through your initiative? No problem. Based on funding availability, applications are now accepted all year!

Waste Grant Announcement

Waste Grant Application

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• D65 Climate Action & Garden Community Contact List
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 23-24 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 22-23 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Newsletter Archive