Community Voices: SPPS is leading on Climate Issues
Sometimes life does in fact imitate art. Several years back actor Jeff Daniels, in the show “The Newsroom” stated, “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.” That seems like a pretty straight forward notion, but unfortunately with too many things plaguing our society our unwillingness to see it as a problem is often our downfall. Looking at the issue of climate change we see that for TOO LONG our unwillingness to see it as a problem has cost us.
While we will never have unanimity in anything, I do feel some solace that for the most part the people of the world have taken that first step. Most of humanity believes climate change is here and yes we have a problem.
Now that we have done the first step, what next? Of course there is no one answer and there are many places we could start. On the issue of climate change, I believe that a solid second step is to actively bring your community together to collaborate on solutions. Not as easy as just identifying you have a problem for sure.
While there is much work to do and numerous pitfalls in front of us, I want to share a message of hope and good news coming from Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS). Through the advocacy of SPPS students, members of the Saint Paul Federation of Educators, SPPS Facilities staff, SPPS Board members, community members and so on, good things are happening.
Specifically, on July 16th 2024, the Saint Paul Board of Education passed a resolution titled, “Establishment of Board Sustainability Advisory Committee.” The language states that this will be a committee that brings in students, staff, union members, community experts, etc to collaborate on local climate solutions. Their goal will be to push the District on issues of sustainability in the District and larger community for the benefit of current and future SPPS students.
This issue of climate change is a tall task, and one that we must face. And yes, the establishment of a committee does not assure success. But, it is important to highlight that when we face big problems we MUST and CAN work together to solve them. Let’s get to work.
~ Tom Lucy, SPFE Climate Action Team
