How to talk to your school board about climate change…and have them listen

Why does anyone talk a school board meeting? Better yet, why would any sane person do it? Sure, the public comment period can have a few well-meaning (usually), but misguided (usually) citizens who wield a poster or a pocket-sized constitution, but is the public comment period a place for people to advocate for real change? It can be. Even if you do not have children, it should be. Schools have on average 150 sq.ft. per student. That is the equivalent of a small bedroom for every K-12 student in the country. Every year, that space has to be heated, cooled, and lighted. How we do those things is everyone’s business.

Let’s start with the basics. While each school district has slightly different rules, it is common (and sometimes required by state law) to have a period during every regular school board meeting to allow people to speak. This time is for any resident of the district to comment on the schools, not just parents. This practice has been under some scrutiny recently as people have been using the time to advocate for their perspectives on how schools should handle the pandemic — masks, no masks, open schools, close schools, fire everyone, quarantine the service dogs. If anything the last few years has taught us that this time during a school board meeting, which used to be rarely used and even more rarely controversial, can be an important time to pressure the elected officials on the board to take action.

Secondly, what is a board of education and what can they do? School boards are elected officials who do three things, officially. They set board policy, which is the official set of rules the district and all its employees have to follow, they spend money, and they hire the superintendent. The employees of the district usually make all the other decisions, but it is always in the context that the school board sets.

Unofficially, school boards wield influence over the priorities of a school district. Hardly any big money (think millions) can be raised or spent without heavy involvement of the board. This is where climate advocacy can be influential.

Before you go to speak at a school board meeting, you should do a little research because it can turn off a school board if a person comes in and accuses them of doing nothing on climate change when in fact they have been engaged on the issue already. Board members don’t expect you to go back and read the minutes or watch the videos from every previous board meeting (although, you can), but they do expect you to know a little about what is being done already. A quick internet search is all you need, but those few minutes reading up before you speak will go a long way to making your message heard.

Now you are ready to speak, but what to say? After all, you aren’t speaking to Congress, there is only so much we can expect a local school district to do about climate change. Here are some tips:

1. Keep your message focused on how the district uses its resources. This is squarely the purview of the board of education. Messages like, “The school district should consider energy efficiency when it makes big purchases” or “The school district should do periodic energy efficiency audits and report those to the public” or “Energy efficiency is fiscally responsible, and the school board is obligated to be responsible with taxpayer money.” These messages resonate because they are things that a board can and should do.
2. If the board has taken any action on climate change, acknowledge it. If you don’t, they will think you are simply uninformed, but if you acknowledge it, they will know you are asking for more action than what has already been done.
3. Keep it factual. As much as climate change might be reason for righteous outrage, righteous outrage is not the tone you want to strike. The more your facts and questions are directly connected to the business of schools, the more likely they are to listen.
4. Finish your message with a short call to action. What do you expect your board to do next? How do you expect them to report back to you?

Here is a sample speech with blanks you can fill in:

“Thank you, board members, for hearing my concerns tonight. I am a taxpayer in this school district, and I want to make sure my resources are being used in a responsible and efficient way. I know this board recently addressed energy efficiency by ______________________________. But I am asking that you do even more to increase efficiency of the school district. I would like an annual energy audit reported to the public and regular updates on how the school district is increasing energy efficiency. I would like rooftop solar to be considered at all sites and the cost savings that come with solar to be reported publicly. Finally, I would like board to consider updating lighting and appliances to the most energy efficient available. Thank you for hearing my concerns, and I look forward to hearing more about what _____________ school district is doing to become more efficient.”

You might notice that the speech does not include phrases like “carbon footprint” or “climate change.” That is very much intentional. Frameworks Institute, a political science think tank that works on how to communicate progressive causes, calls this approach entering through the side door, and it is much more successful at getting proposals that address climate change adopted. School board politics are local, and depending on the size of the school district, they may even be personal. The board members are people in the community, and the people speaking might be their neighbors. They don’t want to be lectured about the latest IPCC report, and they don’t want to be called a fascist just because they don’t see the connection between running schools and addressing climate change. Ezra Markowitz and Julie Sweetland report:

“A good deal of research into the psychology of persuasion finds that yelling louder from an entrenched position doesn’t just fall flat, it can actually be counterproductive.”

So what is the side door to climate change in a school district? Money. If you can make a cogent case that energy efficiency, solar, or battery storage makes financial sense, boards have to listen to you. A second, related, side door is about sustainability and resiliency. This case won over the board in Petaluma, California where they realized that solar and battery storage was they only way they could be sure they operate through the rolling blackouts of fire season. Similar cases could be made in coastal areas during hurricane season and throughout the Midwest and South where a changing climate means more frequent tornadoes and accompanying storms. But resiliency and sustainability are not as persuasive as the here and now claim that the district can be doing better with their resources. If it is about money, it is not about climate politics, it is about fiscal responsibility.

Finally, if you want the board to listen you must be consistent. Coming once and making your statement will make you heard, but coming every month will make the board listen. Once they know that you and the others advocating for energy efficiency are not going away, they know they will be held accountable for their efforts. If you can’t be there every month, team up with a few others, so the same message is heard month after month, like all political advocacy there is strength in numbers. Schools districts are slow to act, but pushing an agenda of climate consciousness and energy efficiency will shape future decisions about how spend money.