PUSD students take action on climate change

Zoom workshop to be held March 31

Porterville Unified School District continues to implement a policy designed to slow climate change. The district has partnered with the California based nonprofit Climate Action Pathways for Schools, CAPS, to create a 10-year plan that will reduce greenhouse gasses and improve the health of local residents, all while saving significant money for the district.

What makes this plan particularly exciting is it’s led by 12 student interns, hired by CAPS from the PUSD’S Academy of Engineering, the Environmental Science Academy, and the Multimedia and Technology Academy Pathway programs. In order to ensure the 10-year plan is community-driven, the interns have partnered with the City of Porterville and the Tulare County Association of Governments to reach as many residents as possible.

They call themselves the PUSD Energy and Sustainability Program, ESP, and they’re seeking community feedback on air quality, waste reduction, water conservation, and transportation issues and solutions in the Porterville area. Their outreach effort began with a survey that reached more than 2,000 residents and was followed up by five community focus groups that dug deeper into trends identified during the survey.

The ESP interns are now ready to present their solutions to the community and are holding their first workshop virtually through Zoom on Thursday March 31 from 6-7 p.m. All Porterville residents and PUSD families are invited and encouraged to participate.

The interns want to ensure their plan reflects the community’s vision of a future Porterville. The workshop will be hosted in both English and Spanish, and those interested can sign up for the event through the link https://bit. ly/3lcupmr. Those who are unable to attend but still want to give feedback, can fill out a short survey at https://bit. ly/3wkrv9g.

The project is supported by California Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities Program with funds from California Climate Investments — Cap-and-trade Dollars at Work — as well the Clean Mobility Options grant. The strong collaboration that has formed between PUSD, CAPS, the City of Porterville and Tulare County Association of Governments resulted in the city receiving a $3.61 million Clean California grant for improving the Rails To Trails Parkway. The portion of the parkway to be improved will be known as the Santa Fe Byway.

As part of the grant an additional 7 student interns will be hired as part of the CAPS program to design signs for the trail and also create and implement an outreach and education program to promote use of the trail, physical activity and keeping the trail clean.