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Public School Parents Join Brad to Call for Greener, Healthier Schools

Public School Parents Join Brad to Call for Greener, Healthier Schools

Parents are Leading the Way; NYC Department of Education Should Follow

June 25, 2009 -- Parent leaders from schools in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Windsor Terrace today joined together to highlight their efforts to make schools more sustainable, healthier places.  They pointed out areas where NYC schools are failing the environment and the health of students, and called on the NYC Department of Education (DoE) to do better.

“Our schools should be the greenest and healthiest places in our city,” said Brad Lander, a candidate for City Council in the 39th District in Brooklyn (Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Boro Park, and Kensington).  “We can and should be modeling healthy, sustainable choices for our kids – not polluting the earth with Styrofoam and promoting obesity with junk food.  We need today’s students to be the green citizens of tomorrow.  Parents are leading the way, and the DOE should follow their lead.”

The group called on the Department of Education to adopt the following polices:

• Ban Styrofoam in the schools.  Styrofoam never degrades, and when heated it releases potentially toxic chemicals into school food.  Yet NYC schools use and throw away 154 million Styrofoam trays each year. Schools should switch to multi-use or biodegradable trays (with arrangements to have them composted at citywide facilities), and reduce the use of individually-wrapped items.
• Dramatically improve recycling: Several reports have shown that school recycling lags far behind city recycling – with just 9.5% of waste recycled (versus 16.5% citywide, and a goal of 25%).  The DOE must take the lead in forming a partnership with principals, teachers, custodians, unions, students, and parents to make recycling a reality in every classroom, office, and lunchroom. 
• Get junk food out of the schools: A recent study by the NYS Comptroller found “widespread non-compliance with DoE requirements for promoting good nutritional practices in New York City’s public schools.”  Most schools visited had vending machines that offer candy and high-fat/sugar snacks, in violation of DOE policies.  Schools also continue to sell chocolate and other sugared milks.  DOE School Food should insist that only healthy, nutritious food is offered for sale. 
• Support innovative efforts: The City should provide seed grants, technical and curricular assistance to students, parents, educators, and staff who are taking the lead in making schools greener and healthier.  Schools throughout the city are exploring green roofs, solar panels, composting, community gardening, and other innovative steps. 

Brooklyn Schools Taking Leadership
Parents from Brooklyn schools that are taking leadership on these issues discussed their efforts:

• PS 154 in Windsor Terrace was the first school in NYC to get rid of Styrofoam lunch trays.  Deb Capone, PS 154 PTA President,* said:  “Styrofoam has been banned in over 100 cities, because it never biodegrades and contains styrene, a possible carcinogen that is activated when heated.  Yet NYC schools throw away 4 million Styrofoam trays every single week!  We saw the need to change, so we agreed to pay the additional cost for biodegradable trays.  The DOE promised to pay the base cost of the normal trays; but now they are saying they won’t reimburse us.”  
• Parents also spoke of efforts to improve recycling, to increase student and parent involvement, and to help kids make healthier choices about what to eat. Willa Hall and Christiane Baker, two founders of the Green & Healthy Committee at PS 321 in Park Slope,* shared some of their exciting efforts. “We have involved every grade in moving toward a more sustainable planet and making healthy choices.  We’ve worked with our custodian to improve recycling.  We have persuaded many school leaders not to compromise when it comes to our children's health. One example of the many positive changes we have made in our cafeteria with School Food includes restricting the sale of chocolate milk, which is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, to two days per week.
• “Kids in NYC schools need to learn and practice good green behaviors at every level, in every classroom, in every school,” said Deb Levine and Nicholas Bedell from the Brooklyn New School* in Carroll Gardens. “At BNS, kids learn how to recycle, compost, catch rainwater, and make informed food choices. Today's public schools are tasked with educating the green citizens of tomorrow. Parents, educators and administrators cooperating together to transform the schools into model green communities is the only way.”  Parents and students at BNS have partnered with a community farm in Red Hook to grow lettuce that is served in the cafeteria, built a rain water catchment system, won a $10,000 grant to compost food waste, and significantly reduced the schools waste stream with a building-wide recycling effort involving all grades.
• PS 107 (Park Slope) has established an edible garden that will continue over the summer, as well as an after-school healthy cooking program.  They have formed a partnership with a neighborhood greenmarket, including tours and visits by the farmers, and been selected for a Garden-to-School Café program.  The PTA sponsored an evening on sustainable everyday choices, featuring several local authors and school parents with expertise on these issues.
• Middle School 51 (District 15) has worked with the Old Stone House*, a not-for-profit organization located next to the school, in Washington Park (formerly J.J. Byrne Park) to establish partnership gardens that serve as an outdoor environmental classroom.

“These initiatives show why the NYC Department of Education needs to listen to parents,” said Lander, who recently criticized the New York State Assembly bill that would reauthorize mayoral control of the NYC public schools with only token changes.  “If the Mayor and Joel Klein will learn from what parents, students, and educators are doing, they can make all our schools better – as places where our kids not only learn reading and math, but how to lead healthy lives and become stewards of the environment for generations to come.”

Lander is running for City Council in Brooklyn’s 39th District (Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Boro Park, and Kensington). He has worked on neighborhood sustainability and environmental initiatives in his positions as director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Center for Community Development from 2003 to 2009.  Lander, whose kids attend PS 107 in Park Slope, is the only public school parent running in the Democratic primary in September. 

Lander is supported by more than a dozen current and former PTA presidents; elected officials including Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Senators Daniel Squadron and Liz Krueger, City Councilmembers Rosie Mendez and Melissa Mark-Viverito; the Working Families Party; the Coalition of School Supervisors and Administrators (principals’ union); progressive educators like Carmen Farina (former District 15 superintendent), Ruth Messinger, Norm Fruchter, and Dorothy Siegel; and parent leaders from public schools throughout the district.

*Schools & organizations listed for identification purposes only.