[Editor’s Note: Diana Michaelson of the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign helped STF launch the Human Rights and the Climate Crisis Campaign during our 2021 Winter Leadership Workshop.]
August 18, 2022, Long Beach Post:
On Wednesday evening, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) school board unanimously approved Board Proposal 3510.1, better known as the Green School Operations – Energy and Sustainability Policy.
That action was the culmination of two years of activism by the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign, a dedicated group of LBUSD students across a number of high schools and middle schools. The group’s founder Diana Michaelson, an incoming senior at Poly High School, has been at the forefront of the effort, working directly with district leadership on the policy and organizing student activists to provide a consistent presence at school board meetings since August 2020.
“We obviously really wanted this to pass, but it was really empowering as well,” Michaelson said. “Like we’ve reiterated so many times today, it’s been a collaborative process… I think we all had the jitters today realizing that this is a really big vote that’s coming up. It was a mixture of nerves, but also relief and faith in the school district.”
The revised proposal included a specific timeline for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, in alignment with current goals from the state of California. The LBUSD will be transitioning to zero-emissions vehicles and machinery “as rapidly as recapitalization cycles and budgets allow.” …
Continue reading to learn more about the resolution.
