Two Oak Park and River Forest District 200 administrators have received a Green Award from the village of Oak Park for their part in moving the high school toward a greener and more sustainable future.
The Village of Oak Park’s environmental and energy citizens commission presented a Green Award to District 200 Board President Tom Cofsky and Supt. Greg Johnson to recognize their “leadership in advancing equity-centered climate action, climate resilience, and sustainability.”
According to Elizabeth Lukehart, communications director at Seven Generations Ahead and chairperson of the environmental and energy citizens commission, the commission looks for various contributions when selecting whom to award.
Dan Yopchick, chief communications officer for the village of Oak Park, said both Johnson and Cofsky demonstrated their commitment to environmental sustainability and community engagement through their efforts to develop the high school’s sustainability plan.
“The plan represents a holistic approach to sustainability, encompassing bold energy efficiency, waste reduction, conservation and education goals,” Yopchick said. “Under their leadership and collaboration efforts, the sustainability plan provides an excellent model from which other school districts can draw inspiration and ideas.”
The plan was approved by the Board of Education in July 2022 and includes goals the high school district is trying to achieve to work toward a greener future, including the development of a sustainability scorecard to measure how much energy is used and much food is wasted, as well as reducing their 2012 greenhouse gas emissions 100% by 2050.
That last goal is what Cofsky and Johnson believe to be the biggest component of the plan.
“We wanted to make sure that we shifted over time to reduce our greenhouse gasses down to zero,” Johnson said, adding that the district is conscious of this as they move forward with Project 2.
During the Jan. 25 Board of Education meeting, the board approved D200 to pursue a geothermal system to provide the bulk of the heating and cooling for Project 2, a “huge step,” according to Johnson.
Speaking on how to execute the plan, Johnson said he believes it is “a series of small actions over time,” that matter most.
“We have a large old building…it has several components of it that are increasingly getting updated but are also very outdated,” Johnson said. “Improvements to lighting, insulation, windows- those types of things we keep hearing again and again is the most important way to reduce your carbon footprint.”
Cofsky and Johnson’s “incredible work,” impressed the commission, not only for how they established it but also how they gained support. Lukehart also called their work “exemplary” and “impactful.”
OPRF student and president of the Environmental Club Manolo Avalos, who worked alongside Cofsky and Johnson on the plan, said when he was thinking of whom to nominate for the award, no one else came to mind.
Both Cofsky and Johnson agreed that while they were honored to be nominated, the nomination meant more coming from Avalos.
“Manolo recognizes that whether it is the board president or superintendent, he recognizes that this is something that the school cares about and that is satisfying because that is bigger than just him appreciating me or Tom Cofsky,” Johnson said.
Also included in the plan is creating curriculum for students to learn about sustainability outside of just science classes.
Avalos said he was most excited about that part.
“Our generation is going to have more opportunities and there is going to be more jobs, hopefully well-paid jobs, in the green economy because of what is happening,” Avalos said. “Educating students in the elementary, middle, and high school level about the green economy and how to cope with climate anxiety…that can spark students’ interest.”
That education component was also a guiding point throughout the development of the plan, said Johnson.
“We don’t want our sustainability focus, as far as student learning is concerned, to only be in science classrooms where one could think it immediately fits, but to work ways to fit this across our curriculum” Johnson said.
That will make a big impact, Cofsky said.
“That work is still in development,” Cofsky added. “Incorporating this into the curriculum is a big deal…some of this stuff isn’t part of historical curriculum, it is new stuff…that work is really just getting going and it is going to take time to get it all worked out.”
Cofsky said the sustainability policy and plan were a team effort with people and organizations in the community, including Garry Cuneen from Seven Generations Ahead, and other faculty and administrators at OPRF.
“We have what I would consider to be a bold policy, the goals we were outlining were bold,” Cofsky said. “We brought it to the school board as a whole and got the full support of the school board and approved that sustainability policy.”
And other school districts have already taken notice, including one of the high school’s feeder districts Oak Park Elementary School District 97, as well as other high schools from neighboring cities, such as Evanston.
“We have been able to share our work with other communities and other schools,” Cofsky said. “We are helping them blaze the trail and put the foundation down. To me it is very exciting, to say that the work we are doing is not just for the walls of Oak Park and River Forest but it has the ability to extend to other communities who are taking that work and then moving on.”