Climate Parents of Prince George’s County
Category: Action Alerts
Unfortunately, climate champion and CEO of PGCPS, Dr. Monica Goldson is retiring at the end of the school year. The hiring process is underway for her replacement, and we need to act to make sure the new superintendent will continue her work on implementing the Climate Change Action Plan.
On April 26, County Executive Angela Aslobrooks is hosting a town hall to allow residents to speak on what they want to see in the new superintendent. We want to make sure that the new superintendent continues Dr. Goldon’s leadership on school climate action and implementing the Climate Change Action Plan. To do that, we need you to testify on April 26.
Please sign up to testify on April 26 and we get you registered and will be in touch with instructions. Of the things you can do this Earth Month to make your children’s environment better this is high on on the list.
Unfortunately, the Maryland Senate has decided to prioritize drivers speeding through school zones over students. Even though our students aren’t guaranteed bus service for over a mile in many cases around a school and current law allows school zones to be within 1/2 mile of the school, the Maryland Senate voted to shrink default zones to roads adjacent to a school and within 500 feet of an entrance. The only recourse is if a traffic engineer determines our children’s safety won’t impede speeding. This is a bad bill and bad for our children’s safety. They need safe routes to school and they need SB11 to go down in the House of Delegates.
The Climate Change Action Plan is in place and we need to call for funding for the first year’s priorities in the upcoming budget development. We need you to voice your support for some if not all of these actions:
The opportunities to sign up to speak at Board Meetings happen quick so let us know if you can participate and we will let you know when to register. The next meeting we will need you to testify at is on February 2, followed by one on February 15.
The Climate Action Plan is coming and in order to get it adopted we will need to let the Prince George’s County Board of Education know we want it. It covers all seven of the areas of concern we wanted to see (education, buildings, electricity, transportation, food, waste, and storm water/land-use) and also strives to ensure equity of outcomes and a dialog with students and other stakeholders.
It is a good plan. And we all need to speak up to say that.
So please sign up to testify. The opportunities to sign up to speak at Board Meetings happen quick so let us know if you can participate and we will let you know when to register. The next meeting we will need you to testify at is on March 24 so please let us know if you can by March 21, 2022.
While we expect a final Climate Action Plan will likely be final around Earth Day 2022 we need to get a head start on several issues. We need you to voice your support for a “Sustainability Officer” for PGCPS in the FY23 budget. That way when the plan is done there will somebody that can work across departments to make our plan a reality.
The opportunities to sign up to speak at Board Meetings happen quick so let us know if you can participate and we will let you know when to register. The next meeting we will need you to testify at is on January 13.
The Prince George’s County Board of Education wants to know what parents, teachers, students, and residents think should be part of the school system’s climate action plan. Include your thoughts on equity, education, jobs, buildings, transportation, grounds, food, and waste. This will be the last chance to provide feedback before the Focus Workgroup starts drafting a plan. Fill Out The Survey by 10/31: http://bit.ly/pgcps-climate-survey
PGCPS is taking comments on the 2023-28 Capital Improvement Plan and we need to support PGCPS continuing to build schools with geothermal heating and cooling and that meet LEED Gold.
Register to Testify Sep 9 at 6PM: bit.ly/cppg-cip2021
PGCPS is taking comments on long-term changes to their attendance policies and student activists need our help. One of the reforms came out of the efforts of two Eleanor Roosevelt High School students that started a Sunrise Hub and were trying to get excused absences for attending a Fridays for the Future rally. Civic engagement is an activity where students can learn hands on how to make change and we are supportive of the efforts of our friends at the Sunrise Hub. Besides allowing for excused absences for such civic engagement activities, they will allow for mental health days for students and college visits, as well as consider more types of people family members.
Comments are due on December 9 and it is a simple form. Make sure that you say that you support “excused absences for civic engagement activities” in your comments.
To read more about the proposal click here: https://offices.pgcps.org/board-of-education/cards/