Climate Becomes A Permanent Part of Every School Board Agenda
At the June 25, 2019 meeting of the Windham South East School Union BCS director Kurt Daims proposed an advisory resolution to include climate crisis in every regular meeting of the school directors. One person spoke against the resolution, and after an enthusiastic debate – and an added amendment – the resolution was approved.
The entire resolution as passed reads: “Require the School Board to include, in regular meetings, discussion on climate crisis, and to make purchasing decisions through the lens of the hidden environmental, racial, social, and equity costs that may arise.”
The BCS resolution has resulted in the creation of a committee, the “Climate Crisis Task Force”. BCS volunteer and Brattleboro activist Django Grace helped to form the Committee, and served as a member during its inaugural phase.
The chairperson of the school board, Christina Naylor, believes that the committee is in compliance with the resolution. It has great strategic value, although it does not provide as much public participation or expedite the approval process the way the agenda item is intended to do. BCS is working to make sure that the agenda item occurs at every meeting regardless of whether the Task Force has referred any specific items, and that Climate Crisis items brought to the Board will have a full-Board airing and public comment and debate period before referral to the committee.
Watch the 12-minute discussion and debate below:
BCS Climate Resolution at WSESD Mtg June 25 2019
Astroturf Pollution at High School Athletic Field
At the very beginning of its creation, the new unified school district board was poised to approve a measure that would install astroturf at the BUHS athletic field. Local residents dealt this pollutant boondoggle a serious set-back December 5, when the committee considered putting the project to a public vote, which the astroturf supporters didn’t want to do. The board was persuaded to postpone the project. Unfortunately the price of this maneuver is a $30,000 “engineering study”.
Then-BCS director Tim Maciel wrote to the School Board to urge them to get estimates from companies familiar with alternate turfing methods. Gale Associates did a preliminary study for the School Board, but failed to include an estimate for organically managed turf.
Before the public could see the preliminary report, the pandemic began and the issue was not taken up again by the School Board, nor is it expected to be taken up anytime soon.
Read Tim’s Letter to the WSESU Board 
Django Grace: Community Voice and Activist
“I met Kurt Daims of BCS in the summer of 2019. I had just participated in a die-in climate action at a local parade, and was feeling good about myself. Many people were congratulating me and patting me on the back for doing that as a youth. Somehow I ended up at a BCS information table that Kurt was running. Instead of shaking my hand and saying “wow bud, that was a really cool thing that you did, how brave you are”, Kurt shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and said something along the lines of “what’s next?” I was taken aback, and I realized I really didn’t know. We had a conversation and I gave BCS my email. Soon an opportunity arose, and before long I had volunteered there on several different occasions.
I like working with BCS for two main reasons.
1) They are super ambitious. When I work with them we never beat around the bush and take the small easy solution. If there is a thing that needs to be done, BCS works until either it is accomplished or it fails. And if it fails, they try again.
2) When I volunteer, I am not tokenized for being a kid. I try not to be a poster boy for any organization or cause, I just try to do the work. In many places I am out of the ordinary for being a kid and pushing for local change, but At BCS I am treated just like any other member. I’m valued for who I am and what I can do.”