Preview the Questions

1. Achieving the City goals for addressing climate change – The City of  Alexandria’s Environmental Action Plan set goals to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions city-wide by 50% by 2030 and by 80-100% by 2050  (below 2005 levels). ACPS currently has no goals or policies regarding  addressing climate change in its facilities and operations. Meanwhile, Fairfax  County Public Schools, for example, committed to achieving carbon neutrality for  its operations by 2040.

• Should ACPS make a similar commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ACPS operations and facilities as an explicit action under its  Strategic Resource Allocation goal?

2. Supporting the City of Alexandria’s Green Building Policy for new schools and expanding this strategy to renovations of existing schools – The City of  Alexandria through its Green Building Policy requires all new public buildings to be ultra-energy efficient, use clean energy systems such as rooftop solar and  geothermal heat pumps, and use materials and natural lighting that boost the  health of the people inside. These practices result in an improved learning  environment and significantly reduce operating costs over the life of a school building. This can have little-to-no more upfront costs compared to conventional  buildings when planned from the start of a project design. ACPS is building new net-zero schools under this policy but does not have any adopted goals or performance standards for transitioning its existing buildings into clean and  energy-efficient facilities.

• Do you support continuing the City’s Green Building Policy for ACPS new school buildings?
• How would you propose addressing the need for energy efficient and green, clean existing ACPS facilities?

3. Reducing harmful diesel bus emissions and maintaining free and frequent  DASH service – ACPS has been a leader in the region with 15 electric school  buses. However, with over 115 school buses in its fleet, even at this current pace, a majority of ACPS students won’t experience the health and climate  benefits of electric school buses for another 10 years. At the same time, the DASH bus fare-free program and service changes (new frequent routes)  implemented several years ago have proven very popular among middle and  high school students and ACPS staff. 

• How would you approach building on these efforts (for example a goal to  transition the full school bus fleet to electric by a set date) to most efficiently meet student and staff transportation needs while ensuring clean, climate-friendly transportation?

4. Ensuring safe and convenient walking and biking to ACPS schools – Some city schools have safe walking and biking routes, while others have documented safety deficiencies as seen in Safe Routes to Schools audits documents. Safe Routes to Schools has demonstrated benefits for safety health, sustainability, and reducing school bus needs.

• Do you commit to implementing identified Safe Routes to School needs?
• Would you support these safety improvements even in cases where it  might reduce some space for cars (parking or extra lanes) on segments of nearby streets?  

5. Incorporating climate change and sustainability into the learning environment and curriculum – ACPS students do not receive instruction on climate change in elementary school or middle school. High school student instruction depends on which science courses they choose. Studies show that a majority of children experience anxiety from the threat of climate change and the failure of our governments and leaders to effectively respond to this existential threat. The lack of teaching explaining climate change, when kids are personally experiencing it and hearing about it, can be a contributing factor.

Education on climate change and clean energy at the secondary level also can be used to provide vocational development training. ACPS sustainability features at schools like Douglas MacArthur also presents opportunities for hands-on learning. But there were no actions to educate students about the green features after the building opened.

• Do you support expanded efforts to incorporate climate change into ACPS curriculum?
• Do you support a commitment that school counselors be equipped with a standardized toolkit for talking with students about green careers and the background necessary to enter those careers, including the presence of green career professionals in career and student interview days?

6. Preparing for extreme weather and other impacts of climate change – Across the U.S. schools are facing disruptions to their instruction days and operations from more extreme weather – heat, flooding, wildfire smoke, strong storms. ACPS school instruction and after-school activities have been impacted by these events in recent years. The City of Alexandria’s Energy and Climate Change Action Plan provides strategies and recommendations for how the city needs to adapt to impacts of climate change that are already happening and anticipated to worsen. ACPS does not have a plan to address climate change resilience and adaptation needs.

• What policy direction should the School Board provide to address the growing impacts of extreme weather, including heat waves and wildfire smoke, on ACPS students, staff, operations and facilities?

7. Sustainability Advisory Committee for ACPS – Arlington and Fairfax Counties' public schools have used citizen advisory committees to advise the  Superintendents and School Boards about environmental sustainability. No such  bodies exist in Alexandria about environmental sustainability.  

• Do you support the creation of an expert advisory body for the School Board and Superintendent to provide best practice recommendations on clean energy, climate justice, climate adaptation, energy resilience, solid  waste, and environmental health issues?