Evanston/Skokie
School District 65
Sustainability
We are a community of teachers, staff, caregivers and community members focused on building a brighter, healthier, more equitable future for our children. We are a community daring to dream and working together to heal and restore our planet through local action across our school district. We are educating and engaging our students as future leaders on ways they can champion climate action in our community. We acknowledge the interconnectedness of climate action, equity, and justice and welcome all community voices so that together we can build a better future.
24-25 School Year: D65 Sustainability Focus Areas
D65 Sustainability / Climate Action Plan in development. Our Goal: By May 30 2025, a thoroughly vetted district-wide sustainability program plan will be presented to the D65 School Board. The plan will be aligned to City of Evanston and Village of Skokie sustainability program plans and District 65 strategic priorities will be included in D65 school board policy as a commitment to advancing D65 sustainable practices. Learn more...
We've built a cross functional team of 30+ members including racially and culturally diverse backgrounds from D65 schools, departments / teams, students and community partners who will participate in the development of the sustainability plan. Stay tuned for updates via our Sustainability Newsletter and Climate Action Community Meetings.
Highlights of our Sustainability and Climate Action Initiatives
Lunchroom Composting and Recycling in Our Schools
We are proud to be composting and recycling in ALL our D65 school lunchrooms! Thank you to our lunchroom supervisors, custodians, nutrition services, teachers, school leaders, staff and our D65 climate action teams, who collectively make this a daily experience for our D65 students. Together, we’re doing our part to create a healthy planet!
End of School Classroom and Locker Clean Out
D65 hosted an End of School Clean Out from May 12 - June 7, 2024. Our D65 schools mobilized to gather leftover school supplies from classrooms and lockers that would typically go to the landfill. We encouraged sharing and reuse within our schools and D65 Families, while restocking a school supply swap closet! Remaining items were donated to our D65 Family Wellness Program, Art Makers Outpost, and SCARCE.
Earth Month Activities
In 2023, our students participated in a variety of Earth Month activities including classroom engagement, school climate action projects and the 10 Second Film Festival. Exciting plans are underway for our 2024 Earth Month!
School Recycling
D65 encourages recycling in our schools. Check out our resource and learning hub and let’s recycle better, together!
D65 Parent University: Sustainability Series
In the Fall 2023, D65 hosted a 3-part sustainability series for caregivers to learn more about the District's sustainability efforts.
Planting Trees and Native Plants on School Grounds
Our climate action and garden teams across the district have been busy planting new trees and native plants on our school grounds. It’s exciting to see our gardens growing and native plantings blooming!
LED Lighting Upgrades
LED Lighting upgrades and retrofittings are were completed in all D65 schools in the summer of 2022 and 2023.
City of Evanston Recycling Truck: Student Art Design Competition
In honor of America Recycles Day, the City of Evanston asks middle schoolers to create a recycling truck art design to be displayed on a City of Evanston recycling truck. Congrats to Isabel M a 7th Grader at Chute Middle School who was named the winning illustrator in 2023 and Zeynep, an 8th Grader at Chute Middle School in 2022!
Climate Clubs
Our Climate Clubs are engaging students in a few of our D65 schools, click the link to learn more!
Gardening at Schools across the District
Gardens at our schools across the district are growing beautiful local food. It's an exciting opportunity to get our students into the garden to learn and discover hands-on where are food comes from.
Electric School Bus
D65 received grant funding for one electric school bus for our Head Start Program. We'll be expanding to 10 more EV school buses in the 25-26 school year thanks to STA (Positive Connections) receiving a US EPA Clean School Bus Grant. By the end of the 25-26 school year, we will have 11 electric school buses (approximately 25% of buses) serving our D65 students. We continue to partner with our bus companies to explore additional grant opportunities.
Intervention Convention at Nichols
Our 6th graders at Nichols Middle School completed a 2+ month invention challenge to develop climate solutions aligned with the City of Evanston's Climate Action and Resilience Plan.
