Ten simple questions about what schools can do to save the planet could help shape the direction Naperville-area school districts will take over the next decade.
The youth team from the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force, or NEST, is conducting a sustainable school survey to gauge community support for things such as reducing the climate pollution created by school operations, increasing recycling and composting, and planting native and edible gardens.
Riley Leu, co-chair of the NEST youth team and a senior at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, said her group approached administrators from Naperville District 203 and Indian Prairie District 204 who were receptive to their ideas, but wanted more input from the student body on what they want to see.
The best way to collect such data, Leu said, would be to survey students as well as faculty, parents and the community.
“That way we know what to focus on to help improve our school districts,” said Leu, who was honored late last year with a Youth Service Award from KidsMatter for her volunteer efforts with NEST.
Cathy Clarkin, co-chair of NEST, said the timing for the survey is right because District 203 is in the process of creating a sustainability plan and Indian Prairie is working on a master facilities plan that will highlight and prioritize energy efficiency measures, such as adding solar panels.
The information gleaned from the survey will be presented to both schools boards as well as city officials in Naperville and Aurora.
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The surveys can be access through the “Schools Surveys” tab on the NEST website, sustainablenaperville.org.
Leu said so far the primary way of getting the word out has been through NEST youth team members, who represent each of the five high schools in the two districts.
Over the next weeks, NEST and the youth team will be reaching out to environmental science and other science teachers at the high schools to encourage participation and to put messaging on screens in schools and in emails that go home to families and parent-teacher groups.
NEST also will use social media posts and emails to target the broader community who don’t have children in the school system, Clarkin said.
Survey questions focus on school operations, some of which already have been implemented or were applied in the past.
One idea that many schools offer is a share table, where students can drop off unopened/uneaten food and drinks.
Federal nutrition guidelines require schools to give students balanced meals with food like fruits, vegetables and milk that students might not like or choose not to eat.
Instead of tossing the unwanted items in the garbage, students can leave them on the table and others can take them at no cost, Leu said.
She has placed uneaten fruit on the share table at Metea Valley, and occasionally grabs fruit when she needs an afternoon pick-me-up, she said.
Clarkin said one Naperville Central student last year made an apple pie from fruit left at the share table.
The U.S. The Department of Agriculture, which administers school lunch programs, allows uneaten items to be left on share tables or they can be donated to a nonprofit, such as a community food bank or homeless shelter.
Reducing waste also can save money for school districts and taxpayers who fund schools.
Clarkin said a webinar she attended on education sustainability spotlighted a school that separated cafeteria waste, recycled liquids and set aside food for composting.
That school, she said, went from 25 garbage bags to two.
“It can be done, and it does save money,” Clarkin said.
The link to the survey is www.sustainnaperville.org/schools-surveys/d203-survey for District 203 and www.sustainnaperville.org/schools-surveys/d204-survey for District 204.