Green Schools

By Tennessee Maria Reed

Here are some of the ways that I think the district should make the schools more environmentally friendly.

1. Why are you running for Oakland School Board? What do you hope to accomplish? I am running for school board because I feel that the Oakland School system has failed our children in many ways. I spent the primary grades in the Oakland Public Schools and the teachers were unqualified, the classrooms were too crowded and they lacked the resources that were needed in order for the students to go from grade to grade successfully and to enter college prepared. I hope to accomplish getting rid of the "teaching to the test" attitude of the schools, to the update the textbooks and curriculum, bringing more qualified teachers into the classroom, keeping the schools open, making the classrooms smaller and bringing P.E. and Arts into the schools.
2. What can OUSD do to ensure its operations are energy efficient? The OUSD should shut down buildings that contain asbestos and lead. The schools should be rebuilt according to current environmental standards. Schools should use energy efficient light bulbs. When someone leaves the room the lights and heat should be turned off. Classrooms should be kept at an appropriate temperature. Toilets and showers should be designed in such a way that water is conserved. "The Carbon Footprint" should be the title of a required course like Math and Reading. The teachers should use both sides of a sheet of paper when assigning classroom work and homework. More schools should use solar panels and wind energy.
3. How can OUSD reduce driving to its campuses? The OUSD should encourage students, teachers and parents to use hybrid cars. The OUSD should encourage BART and AC Transit to expand their services to the schools. If the children live close by the parent should encourage the child to walk or ride a bicycle. Scholarships should include a pledge to use mass transit. The official car used by school administrators should be the hybrids.
4. What can OUSD do to ensure its operations are zero-waste? The OUSD should organize a program that the Apple Store has. Whenever someone buys a new computer or iPod the Apple Store gives its costumers a discount to recycle their old computers or iPods. At Best Buy in Emeryville one can recycle dead batteries at the front entrance. The OUSD should have places for the teachers and students to recycle old electronics and batteries.
5. What can OUSD do to improve environmental education, both outdoor education, and in science education? The OUSD should encourage the children to recycle and to dispose of trash in the proper way. The students should take required field trips to learn how to share the earth with different plants and animals. They should become acquitted with the forests and shorelines so that they might, as adults, fight to stop the encroachment of developers upon our natural resources. Students should be able to identify different types of plants and animals. The schools should also have floral and vegetable gardens for the students to learn how to garden. The parents and teachers should teach the students how to eat right and they exercise so they stay fit. The district should require students to take courses in economics and health care. Parents, teachers and students should be required to participate in a program where they clean up the schoolyard, shorelines, parks and forests. All of this should start in Kindergarten.
6. In improving OUSD, how can OUSD overcome recent fiscal challenges, and issues regarding state control? The developers and port authority should invest in the schools instead of stadiums, condominiums and shopping malls. OUSD should also get rid of the "unfunded mandate" that has put the state billions of dollars into the red.
7. What endorsements do you have, and how much have you raised for your campaign? I am organizing that as we speak.