D65 Sustainability Update: Nov 25

Congratulations to Nichols 8th Grader Taylor, who is part of our STEP program! Her original graphic design will be our newest artwork to be displayed on a City of Evanston recycling truck!

Taylor's design received the most votes in the Recycling Truck Student Art Design Competition, hosted by the City of Evanston and District 65. In honor of America Recycles Day (November 15), the annual contest challenged students to create original artwork focused on building awareness of the City's newest recycling tool, Recycle Coach and "build better habits & get wiser about waste".

Keep an eye out for the newly wrapped truck rolling around Evanston in 2026!

Celebrating our JEH Early Chilhood Center (ECC) climate action team for hosting a fall bulb planting on November 6 at the JEH Main Entrance. Together, we planted over 375 fall bulbs 🌼🌷 with all ECC students at JEH including Head Start. It was fun watching our students dig holes, drop the bulbs, tuck them in for the winter and say "see you in the spring". Fingers crossed the squirrels leave majority of the bulbs alone over the winter.

In the Spring, we look forward to seeing beautiful tulips, daffodils and more growing at the JEH Main Entrance.

A big thank you to our JEH ECC climate action team, JEH staff, and caregivers for coming out to help us make this day so memorable for all our ECC students.

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

Together, we've planted over 235 trees since 2018. 💚 🌳 💚

JEH Early Childhood students planting a grove of 10 trees with Natural Habitat Evanston north of the JEH parking lot. The new tree grove includes a variety of native oaks, pine, sour gum, ironwood, redbud and serviceberry trees. Check out the Evanston Roundtable article to learn more.

Mr Hollins 5th Grade African Centered Curriculum (ACC) class planted 2 new trees at Oakton, as part of their student changemaking efforts, connected to their Ecosystems science unit and Learning in Places. The students learned about overstory tree species and voted to plant a Swamp White Oak because oaks have the highest pollinator value as a host plant.

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

NEW :

• School maps to identify viable spaces for new tree plantings, in partnership with Natural Habitat Evanston and our D65 Team.
• Approved Tree and Shrubs for D65 School Grounds to use when planning your tree planting requests.

On November 5th, our Teaching & Learning team hosted a Collective Action for Climate Justice professional learning with 14 of our 7th Grade Science Educators. During the PLC, we shared our refined approach for this student-led changemaking opportunity paired with Open SciEd Unit 7.6 Earth's Resources and Human Impacts. This learning will begin in Trimester 2 and the sustainability changemaking will happen in early Spring.

Stay tuned this Spring to see how our 7th Graders take collective action for climate justice.

Thank you to all who joined our November 11 community meeting, click here for community meeting details including our google slides and upcoming meetings.

One of our D65 School Bus providers, Positive Connections, is underway installing new EV charging stations for the 10 new electrics school buses that will be serving our D65 students by the end of this school year. Learn more about Electric School Buses in D65.

In the Spring 2024, US EPA Clean School Bus Program Awards awarded STA (Positive Connections) with $12 million for electric school buses for five school districts they're serving in Illinois and Wisconsin including District 65.

We're pleased to share our D65 Sustainable Meeting and Event Guidelines rolling out this Fall, including delivery of "event supplies" including 5-gallon compost buckets, tongs, signage (compost, recycling and landfill) and QR code with our new guidelines to each D65 school for staff and PTA to use by the end of October.

In District 65, we strive to reduce our food & packaging waste, boost recycling and composting while reducing our waste to landfill, aligned with our Sustainable Operations Goals in our D65 Sustainability Plan applicable to all School, PTA and Community meetings and events.

Why Sustainable Meetings and Events? Hosting a sustainable meeting or event is a great learning experience for everyone, including planners and attendees, and helps us achieve Sustainable Operations Goals of reducing waste to landfill while increasing recycling & composting. Together, our daily actions truly matter to ensure a healthy and just future for our students, staff, families and generations to come. Appreciate you all for being part of our sustainability journey!

Please update your school's contact information for the 25-26 school year, including:

• Climate Action Team Chair(s)
• School Garden Team Chair(s)
• Climate Club
• School PTA and Newsletter emails

The Evanston Community Fridges are looking for community members to help shop for, clean, and deliver food for the three community fridges in Evanston. Evanston’s three community fridges provide free food and toiletries to any community member, anytime. To read about the donation guidelines and fridge locations, please visit https://www.evanstoncommunityfridges.com. To learn how to get more involved, please email evanstoncommunityfridge@gmail.com.

ESCCA, the Evanston School Children’s Clothing Association, is hard at work fulfilling its historic mission - to make sure no Evanston child misses school for lack of warm clothing or shoes. ESCCA opened its doors to District 65 children just before the start of the school year so they could visit our store and choose warm clothing, coats, shoes, boots, socks, undergarments, and more. ESCCA has received over 150 referrals so far this school year.

There are many ways to get involved with ESCCA:

• Consider purchasing something from our Amazon Wishlist which we continue to update with the items we need most. Click HERE!

• Contribute financially to ESCCA to help us purchase clothing for the shop. Click HERE!

• Drop off warm clothing in The Clothing Bin - located at 1500 McDaniel Drive (behind the D65 Building)

• Volunteer with ESCCA!

The City of Evanston has partnered with Recycle Coach to help residents reduce waste and improve recycling habits. Through the free Recycle Coach platform, available online or via mobile app, users can access collection schedules, receive service updates, search “What Goes Where?”, and 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

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 and Garden Resources Library
• D65 Climate Action & Garden Community Contact List
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 24-25 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 23-24 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Positive Impact: 22-23 School Year
• D65 Sustainability Newsletter Archive