By Niamh Mee
AS THE STUDENTS OF RAHS, WE WANT:
The City of Roseville to declare a climate emergency.
Though this is a largely symbolic action, declaring a climate emergency shows that the City of Roseville cares about climate change, and will take future action on climate-related items.
Roseville Area Schools to join the Minnesota GreenStep Schools.
This is a program that provides a framework to allow schools and districts to reduce their environmental impacts and costs, and provide effective environmental and sustainability education for students and staff. Find more information about joining the program here.
Organic waste disposal at RAHS.
Similarly to the elementary and middle schools, the students of RAHS want organic waste disposal at all lunches. A large proportion of lunch food is thrown away every day. This food could be disposed of in a more environmentally-friendly way, and sent to a farm to be used as animal feed.
Solar panels on RAHS within the next ten years.
Xcel Energy has a grant program, SolarRewards for Schools, that provides financial and technical assistance for schools interested in installing solar panels. This is a program that would potentially allow RAHS to have solar panels without the majority of the initial financial commitment.
Find the official Xcel filing here.
Find the Department of Commerce filing here.
Unified trash hauling within Roseville.
Similarly to the unified recycling plan, we want to reduce the number of waste-hauling vehicles on the roads in Roseville, and ensure that the trash collection services meet certain standards for working conditions.
Community gardens at Roseville Area Schools.
Land in Roseville is too expensive to create a community garden, but there is lots of space on Roseville Area School grounds. This could be an excellent opportunity for community outreach and multigenerational connections, while students also can learn about growing the food they eat. The food grown in gardens could be donated to school or community food shelves.
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