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2022-23 DEI Speaker Series

September 20, 2022 6pm

Parent Power & Green Schoolyards

with Aleigh Lewis, she/her

Founding Member, Angelenos for Green Schools

LAUSD Parent

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Parent Power & �Green Schoolyards

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LAUSD owns over 6,400 acres, the largest landowner in Los Angeles County.

The majority of these schoolyards are covered

in asphalt without any tree cover for shade.

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Schoolyards are often the hottest location in �every neighborhood because they have little shade �and so many hot surfaces.

Luskin Center for Innovation

LAUSD heat map

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Asphalt in particular raises the air temperature because it not only �holds on to heat but it covers most of the surface area at each school.

+48 degree temperature difference

September 7th at 2:42 PM�Mt. Washington Elementary School

July 21^st at 11:03 AM�Alta Loma Elementary School

+ 39 degree temperature difference

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When the air temperature is raised due to human-created reasons, it is known as the heat island effect.

This means that if your

neighborhood has a lot of asphalt, it can be up to 20 degrees hotter

than a neighborhood that has less asphalt.

Asphalt changes the local climate.

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Redlining Map of Los Angeles 1939

The urban heat island effect is disportionately worse in areas that experienced redlining. Redlining was the discriminatory practice of giving neighborhoods a grade, depending on their perceived ability to pay back loans, such as mortgages. Communities of color were usually given a grade D which was the color red in the map. This redlining also deterred government investment in parks and trees therefore reducing the value of land and often attracting heavy polluting industries.

Redlining

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Heat Map of Los Angeles July 3^rd, 2020

Redlining Map of Los Angeles, 1939

These two maps reveal the correlation between areas �that have been redlined and higher temperatures.

Climate Justice is Racial Justice

The urban heat island effect is particularly worse in areas that experienced decades of discriminatory practices such a redlining which deterred investment in parks and trees in communities of color. This also reduced the value of land and attracted heavy polluting industries.

Pollution from these heavy industries has created high rates of chronic illnesses such as lung disease and asthma, and the pollution also raises temperatures. To make matters worse, asphalt release more pollutants the hotter it gets. You can see without parks and green space, the pollution and temperature fuel a vicious cycle.

Here you see a heat map of a summer day in Los Angeles and you can see that the temperature varies widely. You can see how the higher temperatures correlates with the redlined areas–the orange and red areas.

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Tree canopy at street level in Los Angeles according the redlining grades.

National Geographic 2021

Tree canopy is �connected to zip code

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Extreme heat exacerbates chronic illness

LATIMES 2021

"Heat affects the heart, it affects the lungs, it affects the kidneys, it affects your fluid balance. It can make diabetes worse; it can make psychiatric disorders worse."

-David Eisenman, �UCLA Prof. Medicine & Public Health

ABC 7, September 2, 2022

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200 schools in LAUSD do not have a single tree.

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�Highlands Council of PTAs schools

Historically, trees have been planted around the perimeter, not directly on campus.

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It IS possible for schools to look �& feel different

than they do now.

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AFTER

BEFORE

LAUSD school by TreePeople

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Planting trees can reduce the air temperature by 9 degrees

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Capturing stormwater helps replenish groundwater and makes L.A. more drought resilient

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Planting native plants invites pollinators and birds who keep our ecosystem in balance, which regulates our weather patterns

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Dynamic outdoor learning allows students to experience their local environment first hand

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Non-competitive play alternatives give kids more options at recess and after school

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The multiple benefits of green schoolyards:�MENTAL HEALTH

Trees and vegetation reduces heart rate and blood pressure which reduces stress, and increases attention
Exposure to microorganisms in dirt can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression
Shade makes recess/P.E./after-school possible outside even when it’s hot
Wider variety of play possibilities

WHICH LEADS TO:

Improved attention, focus, and academic performance for students
Environment is more enjoyable which increases staff and student retention

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The multiple benefits of green schoolyards:�CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Reduce local pollution and improve air quality
Reduce urban heat island effect
Keep water local through stormwater management
Create habit connectivity and increase local bird and pollinator populations

WHICH LEADS TO:

An environment that is better prepared to mitigate extreme weather
Healthier environment and healthier kids who don’t have to miss school because they are sick

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The multiple benefits of green schoolyards:�DYNAMIC LEARNING

On-campus gardens and trees are living laboratories
Environmental literacy through first-hand understanding of how the natural world works
Climate learning is not limited to science - it connects to all school subjects - it is our history and our future

WHICH LEADS TO:

Increased academic engagement and performance through observational and sensory experiences
Multi-disciplinary approach to stewardship and responsible citizenship

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How can YOU as a

parent get involved?

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Support UTLA in their effort to include �Climate Justice Demands �in their new contract!

Sign the pledge of support: bit.ly/LAANEcountmein �
Follow @reclaimourschoolsla on IG

Participate in “Hot or Not: The Scan Your School Project”�

Reclaim Our Schools LA is a grassroots coalition of parents, students, teachers, and community members that are organizing at a district-wide level for meaningful investment in our public schools as well as racial justice. Since 2016, we’ve demanded and won things like class size caps, commitments to nurses on every campus, investment in restorative justice programs instead of criminalization. During this COVID-19 crisis we pushed for the strongest pandemic protocols. The way we’ve accomplished this is through grassroots power-building and leveraging UTLA bargaining power. The campaign that we’re pushing for now is the result of months of community consultation & listening sessions, where we asked stakeholders “what would you like to see at your school?” and the ideas were so generative, things like: more mental health support for students, arts opportunities, even things like affordable housing solutions. Additionally, green spaces, clean drinking water, and healthy foods were ideas that came up a lot during our listening sessions.

So we rolled up our sleeves and took these demands and talked with our allies who were experts in climate justice and drafted these ideas into policy proposals that we’ve brought to the contract bargaining table.

Green schoolyards, outdoor ed
Climate resilient retrofits/systems, electrification of bus fleet
Climate literacy

But you might be asking, “why UTLA bargaining?”

UTLA, as a union that fights for their members and LAUSD families, are committed to bargaining for the common good, transforming systems
Bargaining has yielded significant results, within a year, the CS Initiative was up and running; BSAP
Getting policy in writing, legally-binding = powerful

We cannot be successful without the support and guidance from the community - we encourage you to get involved especially around our climate justice demands. LAUSD has effectively rejected our Beyond Recovery platform, so we need to escalate.

UTLA Climate Justice Demands: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vv7FiwXQI026Wf2G1HuC06LT5WE-Kdsv/view?usp=sharing

Sign Pledge of Support: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K598olLP5ppJzU35CDku-y1XnEUwDkeSGg37zgQIRJk/edit

Reclaim Our Schools IG: https://www.instagram.com/reclaimourschoolsla/

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How to advocate for green schoolyards at your school:

Create a relationship with your principal
Gather interest from the school community to create a Greening Committee�

Campus assessment for low-hanging-fruit improvements: �

Are there empty tree wells on campus that could be filled?

Is there dead lawn that could be replaced with native plants? �
If your schoolyard is slated for a slurry or repaving–advocate to get it greened instead of repaving.

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For larger improvements:

Apply for a SEEDS grant - $100k

�- Eligible projects include depaving and planting trees, creating a garden area

Apply for a Safe Clean Water grant - up to $1million

�- Eligible schools need to capture a certain amount of water or partner with

schools to capture water as a network of schools

- Funding prioritizes nature-based solutions such as replacing pavement with

stormwater infrastructure such as bioswales, rain gardens, and cisterns and

creating a collaborative process with the community�

California Schoolyard Forest System - Fall 2022

�-This initiative will work to increase tree canopy on public school grounds to shade and

protect PK-12 students from extreme heat and rising temperatures due to climate

change.

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Connect with us!

Website: Angelenosforgreenschools.com

Email: Angelenosforgreenschools@gmail.com

IG: @angelenosforgreenschools

FB: @angelenosforgreenschools

Twitter: @A4GS_LAUSD