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In March, on the day before Evanston/Skokie District 65 started its spring break, the school board convened a last-minute meeting and members voted to “reimagine” the sustainability coordinator position created two years ago.
The move replaced a sustainability coordinator with a “science and sustainability education coordinator” charged with embedding climate action into the District 65 curriculum.
But dozens of local activists showed up to that March meeting in support of existing Sustainability Coordinator Karen Bireta, who is tasked with improving the efficiency and sustainability of the district’s buildings and operations.
“I think the decision to get rid of a sustainability coordinator is kind of tragic, honestly,” Milo Slevin, a 2024 Evanston Township High School graduate and the most recent coordinator of student climate action group E-Town Sunrise, told District 65 board members in March. “Given how much money, how many resources, how much passion needs to be put into the climate crisis right now, it seems like an absolute travesty and a disaster.”
But on Thursday, the district announced it was reversing course and keeping Bireta in her role, while also still adding the science and sustainability education coordinator.
“We are deeply grateful for her expertise and leadership,” Superintendent Angel Turner said in a press release published Thursday morning. “When it comes to sustainability, we need to ensure we are making systemic, actionable change within ALL of our schools.”
In that release, the district acknowledged that the initial decision to replace Bireta’s position with the education coordinator, who would have the added responsibility of creating a climate change curriculum on top of helping the district’s buildings and grounds reduce their carbon footprint, was part of “very difficult decisions to improve its [the district’s] financial trajectory and reduce overall expenses.”
This spring, the board approved a number of cost-cutting measures and personnel reductions, primarily through retirements and previously planned departures. The district ultimately managed to save enough money through those moves to reinstate the sustainability coordinator, “which remains aligned to the budget reduction plan and is cost neutral.”
Additionally, the district announced its appointment of Carla Shortino as the science and sustainability education coordinator. Shortino was most recently the elementary science content specialist for Chicago Public Schools, where she was charged with integrating Next Generation Science Standards into elementary schools, according to Thursday’s press release. She’ll start her new role in Evanston in July.
In the 2023-24 school year, Bireta helped students compost 204,915 pounds of waste, which saved 66.4 metric tons of carbon emissions, District 65 announced.
“In the coming school year, District 65 will work to foster a deeper culture of sustainability in ways that align with Evanston’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP),” the district said. “This includes continued efforts towards ensuring our new Fifth Ward School is designed with LEED Silver sustainability features.”
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Duncan Agnew covers Evanston public schools, affordable housing, City Hall and more for the RoundTable. He also writes long-form investigations, features and the morning email newsletter three times a… More by Duncan Agnew
2 Comments
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Kudos to the Superintendent and the School Board for having the courage to revisit and amend this decision. Nice to see us moving forward on sustainability. It’s a win for our kids and our planet.
The District 65 leadership should be lauded for this decision: I’ve heard incredibly positive things about both Ms. Bireta and Ms. Shortino. I do not understand why the Board was so gung-ho about eliminating Ms. Bireta’s position to begin with.
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