D65 Sustainability Update: May 25

Across the district, 7th grade students have taken part in Collective Action for Climate Justice, working together to support meaningful climate-related solutions. Building on a strong foundation in climate science—gained through an OpenSciEd unit figuring out the causes behind the increasing severity of floods and droughts—students applied their knowledge to take informed action and make a real impact.

Students learned about existing changemaking efforts in our schools, local community and beyond, and then leveraged their strengths to make their own contributions to address the effects of climate change.

some groups of 7th graders created presentations for younger students about improving composting efforts at their school and surveyed their neighbors for two weeks calculating the decrease in water usage. Groups created surveys, displayed data to share at their Arts Integration Night and organized a “walk and bike to school” week.

students chose to revive the school garden. They consulted experts, presented to the PTA and researched plants, flowers and pollinators to determine what to grow. After repairing the raised beds and collecting compost from Collective Resource, they planted an edible garden as well as decorative plants to beautify the Bessie Rhodes sign in front of the school. They presented at Cultural Night and will culminate their efforts in the final weeks of school by taking the younger classrooms on outdoor walking tours to share their work and pass along the care of the plants in their legacy garden.

a student created a comic, leveraging his artistic skills, as part of his group’s efforts to raise awareness about an “ugly food drive “ they organized at the school (they eventually added text to articulate what was illustrated in the images). Another group hosted a lunchroom composting competition the week of May 12th where students competed to see which grade level could make the biggest impact. Take a look at their midweek data below.

At District 65, science is an adventure! Our educators spark curiosity with hands-on experiments, real-world connections, and a spirit of discovery. In this video, hear how their creative approaches inspire students to see themselves as scientists — and experience a true "Joy in Learning."

Key pieces of the Learning in Places model include:

• Interdisciplinary learning (integrating science, civics, literacy, social studies and some math), including learning about the histories of our places with an emphasis on wonder, awe, and sustainable & just futures.
• Integrated learning across classrooms, outdoors, and family/community contexts.
• Outdoor learning (Wondering Walks) alongside social science learning (Wondering Talks).
• Motivates learning through Should We questions.
• Field-based investigations drive learning outdoors.
• Young people engage in ethical deliberation and decision-making.

As of the 24-25 school year, we have 13 D65 educators participating in Learning in Places (5 returning educators, 8 new educators) in 7 schools. We're recruiting D65 educators to join our 25-26 school year cohort.

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.

A big thank you Natural Habitat Evanston and Openland TreeKeepers for partnering with our Schools to plant new trees this Spring on our D65 school grounds!

Together, we've planted over 225 trees since 2018. 💚 🌳 💚

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.

In Middle School, the lunch line looks a little different these days. Starting in April, all our middle school lunchrooms now have “serve-your-own” fruits and vegetables. These are usually served to students in pre-measured plastic cups and packaging, but this new way will reduce single-use plastic and waste by allowing students to make their own choices.

Shout Out to our Nutrition Services Team for supporting our Sustainability Goal to reduce Packaging Waste in our Lunchrooms by 2050!

In November 2024, our B&G and Sustainability team rolled out Tandem Dollies to all our interested schools as part of our Year 2 School Recycling Improvements to help streamline collection of recycling & landfill throughout our school buildings.

Excited to share we've increased our School Recycling amount by 6.5 metrics tons since rolling out the Tandem Dollies!

We will continue to strive to increase recycling and composting in our schools, while decreasing contamination and waste the landfill. Learn More at Let's Recycle Better Together.

D65 is hosting an End of School Clean Out from May 21 - June 6, learn more about this year's process and our 2025 Participating Schools.

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!

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 is celebrating and sharing our first D65 Sustainability Plan as a holistic, district-wide, enduring commitment to addressing climate change. Every decision we make is with our students — current and future — at the heart. That is why we are committing to transforming our policies, practices and daily actions to ensure a healthy and just future for our students, staff, families and generations to come.

D65 School Board unanimously approved 4:70 Resource Conservation Policy revisions to move our D65 Sustainability Plan into Policy at the May 5, 2025 School Board Meeting.

D65 Sustainability Plan: Sustainable Schools, Healthy and Just Futures includes goals centered around the following four categories:

1. Teaching and Learning

2. Healthy Environments

3. Sustainable Operations

4. Transportation and Mobility

Our Sustainability Plan plan is the product of six months of dedicated work. Thank you to our working group of 20+ staff, students, caregivers, Evanston and Skokie staff, and multiple local community based organizations who worked collaboratively and tirelessly to formulate this plan.

We know climate change does not affect all people equally. Some communities experience disproportionate impacts because of existing vulnerabilities, historical patterns of inequity, and systemic injustices like redlining. We have made an intentional effort to center Climate Justice in our plan, to ensure that everyone — especially communities that face the greatest burdens — have equal access to healthy environments.

This transformation will take a team effort. Small changes like composting, recycling and turning off the lights matter. System-wide endeavors like adopting this Sustainability Plan for our school district matters. Together, our students, staff and school community have the power to make a real difference, not just by learning about sustainability and climate justice but by stepping up and engaging in meaningful changemaking right here in our schools and community.

Looking forward: D65 commits to annual reporting of progress towards our Sustainability Goals by creating a public dashboard in addition to periodic reviews and plan updates.

To learn more, visit our D65 Sustainability webpage.

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.

Earn up to $2000 for the development of wildlife habitat at your school! Projects must emphasize student/youth involvement with planning, development and maintenance and increase the educational and wildlife habitat values of the site. Learn More and Apply by Dec. 3.

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

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

Low stress, fully funded, and materials are delivered to you. Apply for a $200 Clean Up Grant open year round.

• D65 Sustainability Website
• D65 Sustainability Focus: 24-25 School Year
• D65 Sustainability and Garden Resources Library
• 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