Coalburning schools feeling the heat
I WAS amazed to learn from an opinion piece [by Prof Ralph Adler ‘‘Schools burning coal ought to feel the heat from parents’’] (ODT, 22.2.17) that not only are schools in Dunedin burning coal, but some of them have the cheek to promote themselves as enviroschools in the process.
Not only does coal produce toxic pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and mercury, which have health implications ranging from asthma, lung cancer and heart disease to compromising intellectual capacity, it is also noxious to our environment, polluting our waterways and releasing substantial amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, and we are allowing this in our schools?
If you had a choice, would you house your child in this environment? Well, heads up parents, residents and teachers, you do have a choice. Schools have funding every year to invest in maintenance and development; they too can choose to invest in sustainable heating options, especially if they group together to reduce purchase and setup costs for installing new energy options, but so far the majority are choosing to ignore our children and our community’s health for the status quo.
Opoho School should be ashamed, marketing itself as the highest standard of enviroschool when it burns tons of coal a year, as should other ‘‘enviroschools’’ which are including environmental education as one of the specialities that define them. These schools should either give up their ‘‘enviro’’ status or step up and make the responsible change to renewable, carbonneutral energy such as wood pellet fires. A. Hill Waverley
[Abridged. Ministry of Education head of education infrastructure service Kim Shannon replies: ‘‘It’s really important that our kids are kept warm at school in winter, so heating is an essential part of the infrastructure we fund schools to provide. We are working towards phasing out coalburners as they reach the end of their economic life. We also replace them with other sources of heating when they no longer meet legislative or regulatory requirements. We have additional funding available to schools which they can use to do this. At present we are replacing around four or five systems a year.’’]
[The Opoho School board of trustees replies: ‘‘The Enviroschools Programme supports schools to empower young people to learn about, and make decisions that contribute towards a sustainable future. There is an understanding that changes may take time and the focus of enviroschools is about the journey, not just the destination.
‘‘At Opoho School the student’s efforts to identify and solve problems, connect with others in the community, and plan and carry out actions for the environment are highlighted and celebrated. We know that there is always more to do. The Enviroschools’ Programme fully acknowledges that a ‘Green Gold’ endorsement does not mean perfection, rather an ongoing commitment to make changes and improvements as circumstances and resources permit.
‘‘Boards of trustees are allocated monies from the Ministry of Education for maintenance and development of Crown assets and boards are also charged with a range of responsibilities in this regard, not only upgrading heating systems. The potential cost to replace the boiler at Opoho School with an alternative to coal could be equal to or more than its entire property allocation for 10 years.
‘‘The Ministry of Education acknowledges that Opoho School and many other schools in the greater Dunedin area are currently heated by coal boilers (approximately 30). Funds are available to support the replacement of ‘‘end of life’’ boilers. Schools for the most part find resourceful ways to operate within tight budget constraints and have to prioritise improvements, property developments, catering for learning needs, building staff capabilities and meeting an ever increasing list of national and local government demands.
‘‘The Opoho School board of trustees and the Ministry of Education share the goal of using more environmentally acceptable fuel sources to heat schools, and the board is in discussions with a number of agencies with a view to working collaboratively to achieve this outcome.’’]