June 6, 2012
A new idea was put forth by Sue Stoll. She suggested enrolling ATR's (absentee teacher reserves) in the recycling intitiative. It is worth exploring. There are 831 teachers in the absentee teachers reserves. Perhaps on days that they are not assigned to teach they can conduct recycling audits in schools. It might involve buy-in from the UFT which could be tricky in light of the mayoral election in 18 months.
Emily Fano reinforced the point that outreach is very important. To that end, here are 6 suggestions for the DOE.
1. DOE promote recycling at its professional development workshops
2. Teacher certification programs at the local universities require recycling training
3. Principal certification programs do the same
4. Two prep periods per week for the school recycling coordinator
5. A poster about recycling be placed in every elementary school classroom
6. Tours of Sims and Pratt recycling facilities for teachers
In addition, we should address the following issues;
1. Protect teachers from reprisals from principals who don't want to cooperate in recycling.
2. DSNY should issue fines to schools that don't cooperate the same as they do to other buildings.
3. Principals and custodians should be held personally responsible for the fines. The fines should not be paid from the school's budget. There are 600 new principals since the 2001 because schools were broken up and made smaller. A smaller school means they should be able to handle this added responsibility. They also have the ability to run faculty workshops to inform all teachers of the new recycling law (LL 41).
Custodians are autonomous and principals do not have power over custodians. Therefore, the custodians need to share in the responsibility. The janitors can monitor which classrooms are not separating their trash and report to the custodian who can relay the information to the principal.
4. Have a hotline / oversight for DSNY workers who dump recycling into the regular garbage truck.
Food for thought:
1. On a snow day, nobody goes to school. If the DOE wants to get the word out they can.
2. The smoking ban in restaurants happened with the stroke of a pen. The same can been done to eliminate the use of styrofoam trays in public schools.
3. Back in the 80's there was an ad campaign by the city to save water. Can we ask for something similar for school recycling?
4. The city installed traffic cameras in bus lanes to fine people who don't abide by the new law.
David Hurd, the Director for GrowNYC, told me last week that he is trying to add staff to help in school recycling. Currently, Robbie Lock is the sole "School Recycling Coordinator" at GrowNYC. While I think it is great that they will have more people on the job, there is something to be mindful of. Why is the DOE outsourcing the job of "School Recycling Coordinator" given that they have a Sustainability Director who is responsible for school recycling?
I think ultimately the DOE needs to own the responsibility. Outsourcing the job makes them less accountable because they will say, "we asked GrowNYC to help so it is not our fault if recycling isn't happening." At the end of the day though, if an idea helps school recycling I am in favor of it.
This raises a larger issue; the DOE lacks accountability. There are major problems at the DOE. Here are a couple of examples that have persisted for several years yet nobody is held responsible;
1. DOE did not file for $300 million in medicaid claims for special needs students because "the paperwork was onerous."
2. There is a 31% attrition rate for teachers in their first 3 years. (See: Attrition and Experience of NYC Teachers and Pedagogues)
I don't plan to solve the above mentioned problems but in order to improve outreach, outlined in the 5 steps above, the DOE needs to take the lead. This will be hard to do if they are uncooperative and they feel no obligation to do so.
Lisa (last name?) brought up the idea about painting the sidewalks next to schools different colors to aid janitors in keeping the recycling separate. It is a good idea for practical reasons. It is also free advertising for school recycling as passers by ask "why is the sidewalk painted such pretty colors?"
Let me know what your thoughts are and I will add them to the the list.
One more idea: Enlist Robin Nagle the "Garbage" Professor of Anthropology at NYU to lead a study with DSNY and DOE that looks at the city's overall recycling rate at the schools' recycling rate improves.
A new idea was put forth by Sue Stoll. She suggested enrolling ATR's (absentee teacher reserves) in the recycling intitiative. It is worth exploring. There are 831 teachers in the absentee teachers reserves. Perhaps on days that they are not assigned to teach they can conduct recycling audits in schools. It might involve buy-in from the UFT which could be tricky in light of the mayoral election in 18 months.
Emily Fano reinforced the point that outreach is very important. To that end, here are 6 suggestions for the DOE.
1. DOE promote recycling at its professional development workshops
2. Teacher certification programs at the local universities require recycling training
3. Principal certification programs do the same
4. Two prep periods per week for the school recycling coordinator
5. A poster about recycling be placed in every elementary school classroom
6. Tours of Sims and Pratt recycling facilities for teachers
In addition, we should address the following issues;
1. Protect teachers from reprisals from principals who don't want to cooperate in recycling.
2. DSNY should issue fines to schools that don't cooperate the same as they do to other buildings.
3. Principals and custodians should be held personally responsible for the fines. The fines should not be paid from the school's budget. There are 600 new principals since the 2001 because schools were broken up and made smaller. A smaller school means they should be able to handle this added responsibility. They also have the ability to run faculty workshops to inform all teachers of the new recycling law (LL 41).
Custodians are autonomous and principals do not have power over custodians. Therefore, the custodians need to share in the responsibility. The janitors can monitor which classrooms are not separating their trash and report to the custodian who can relay the information to the principal.
4. Have a hotline / oversight for DSNY workers who dump recycling into the regular garbage truck.
Food for thought:
1. On a snow day, nobody goes to school. If the DOE wants to get the word out they can.
2. The smoking ban in restaurants happened with the stroke of a pen. The same can been done to eliminate the use of styrofoam trays in public schools.
3. Back in the 80's there was an ad campaign by the city to save water. Can we ask for something similar for school recycling?
4. The city installed traffic cameras in bus lanes to fine people who don't abide by the new law.
David Hurd, the Director for GrowNYC, told me last week that he is trying to add staff to help in school recycling. Currently, Robbie Lock is the sole "School Recycling Coordinator" at GrowNYC. While I think it is great that they will have more people on the job, there is something to be mindful of. Why is the DOE outsourcing the job of "School Recycling Coordinator" given that they have a Sustainability Director who is responsible for school recycling?
I think ultimately the DOE needs to own the responsibility. Outsourcing the job makes them less accountable because they will say, "we asked GrowNYC to help so it is not our fault if recycling isn't happening." At the end of the day though, if an idea helps school recycling I am in favor of it.
This raises a larger issue; the DOE lacks accountability. There are major problems at the DOE. Here are a couple of examples that have persisted for several years yet nobody is held responsible;
1. DOE did not file for $300 million in medicaid claims for special needs students because "the paperwork was onerous."
2. There is a 31% attrition rate for teachers in their first 3 years. (See: Attrition and Experience of NYC Teachers and Pedagogues)
I don't plan to solve the above mentioned problems but in order to improve outreach, outlined in the 5 steps above, the DOE needs to take the lead. This will be hard to do if they are uncooperative and they feel no obligation to do so.
Lisa (last name?) brought up the idea about painting the sidewalks next to schools different colors to aid janitors in keeping the recycling separate. It is a good idea for practical reasons. It is also free advertising for school recycling as passers by ask "why is the sidewalk painted such pretty colors?"
Let me know what your thoughts are and I will add them to the the list.
One more idea: Enlist Robin Nagle the "Garbage" Professor of Anthropology at NYU to lead a study with DSNY and DOE that looks at the city's overall recycling rate at the schools' recycling rate improves.
