Tuesday, May 27, 2008
1. That a recycling policy be created at the school Board level that sees:
1.1. All schools have a sufficient number of recycling bins, not only in the
cafeteria, but also in classrooms and hallways with accompanying educational
signs.
Ideally, each garbage bin would have a recycling bin placed next to it, and the
Board would purchase fire retardant recycling bins for the hallways, in order to
meet fire code.
1.2. Students, teachers and custodial staff working together to make recycling a
success.
The contract with custodial staff needs to be renegotiated so that they are
responsible for the proper collection and disposal of recycling in the same way
that they are responsible for the disposal of garbage. Students are willing to
educate the school population on the importance of waste reduction and proper
recycling to improve the success of the program.
1.3. All schools are REQUIRED to recycle and waste audits are run to ensure that
the school is successfully recycling.
2. The School Board creates a policy on responsible paper consumption in schools
that:
2.1 Mandates the purchase of printers that are able to automatically print
double-sided and 2 pages per page.
2.2 Mandates the purchase of 100% recycled paper, with a minimum of 30%
post-consumer.
2.3 Encourages the placement of one-sided paper collection bins at all printing
and photocopying stations.
2.4 Encourages staff and students to make double-sided photocopies, or
photocopies on reused paper pulled from the one-side paper collection bins.
2.5 Encourages teachers to accept, and students to submit, work typed on both
sides of the paper.
3. The School Board increases environmental course content.
3.1 Environmental courses across the School Board should be universal.
Although, Environmental Resource Management was added to a variety of schools,
in the 2007-2008 year; other schools simply lack these options. While
environmental options, such as Geography, are available to earlier grades, these
choices become sparser in the senior grades. Examples of positive environmental
courses provided at some schools are Horticulture, and Geomatics. By creating
more options for students we are giving them better opportunities to learn about
topics relating to the environment.
3.2 Courses should address forms of multiple intelligences which include
naturalistic methods of thinking.
An increase in outdoor learning opportunities should be encouraged, and
environmental principles should be incorporated in all courses. Whereas,
pre-existing courses such as World Issues and Biology have dedicated units
involving the environment, courses such as Careers, Civics and even Calculus,
could emphasize the growing need for leadership in environmentalism.
In relation to the Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future documents found on
the Ontario Ministry of Education’s website, there are a variety of unique
courses from other school boards, which have received positive feedback amongst
students. These showcase that there is a wide variety of environmental courses
that can be implemented with a high level of success.
4. In regards to food and drink exclusivity contracts, we demand that the School
Board ensures that:
4.1 The food and drink contracts do not prevent students from running healthy
and local food fundraising initiatives
4.2 The food contract provides healthy, local food options to students.
4.3 The beverage provider, in this case Coke or Pepsi, is not responsible for
any world crisis that may be studied by the students throughout the school year.
Ideally, we would prefer to see the Board working towards banning all bottled
beverages in the Board’s institutions, as the Waterloo District School Board has
done, and the Toronto District School Board is considering. Bottled beverages,
from their manufacturing to transportation to disposal, have one of the greatest
impacts on our ecosystem than any other waste. They’re bad for the environment;
they display water as a commodity rather than a right; they are not any safer to
drink than tap water. Why are we selling it in our schools?
4.4 The water fountains are properly cleaned and maintained and the consumption
of free, public tap water in schools is promoted
