MCPS: Get serious about climate change

Montgomery County Board of Education

MCPS must act on the climate crisis. We, the students, will face widespread crop failure, yards of sea level rise, and increased natural disasters. To avert runaway warming and an even worse crisis, every level of government must take sweeping action immediately. But our schools are only making the climate problem worse.

Currently, only 38% of MCPS’ energy is purchased from renewable sources, and MCPS still builds schools with fossil fuel furnaces. Their so-called progress to install solar panels in schools has inched up to 17 of MCPS’ 209 schools. The Board of Education claims to commit to continuous improvement, but they lack the action necessary for this. The Board recently committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2035 -- but they took no action to make this happen. MCPS’ inaction actively hurts their students, especially students of color and low-income students. Through MCPS’ continued use of fossil fuels and their inertia and resistance to any positive change, they endanger the young people whom they have committed to educating. It is time for MCPS to start treating climate change as the crisis it is.

We demand that MCPS immediately:

  1. Buy ONLY renewable energy.

  2. Electrify (stop using fossil fuels to heat) any new buildings and find the money to switch those under construction or in planning.

  3. Install solar panels at every school, either on rooftops or over parking lots, by 2027.

  4. Increase energy efficiency which can be done at no cost to MCPS due to energy savings.

  5. Demand necessary funding from state/federal sources to retrofit gas-heated schools with electric systems.

  6. Provide good “prevailing” wages, a fully just transition, and targeted hiring from low-income, MoCo communities for all MCPS-funded work.

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To: Montgomery County Board of Education
From: [Your Name]

It is time for MCPS to start treating climate change as the crisis it is.

We demand that MCPS Board of Education immediately:

Buy renewable energy ONLY (100%).

Electrify (stop using fossil fuels to heat) any new buildings and find the money to switch those under construction or in planning.

Install solar panels at every school, either on rooftops or over parking lots, by 2027.

Increase energy efficiency which can be done at no cost to MCPS due to energy savings.

Demand necessary funding from state/federal sources to retrofit gas-heated schools with electric systems.

All MCPS-funded work will provide good “prevailing” wages, a fully just transition, and targeted hiring from low-income, MoCo communities.