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Interactive Workshop: Catalyzing Systemic School Facilities Upgrades through Multi-Agency Partnerships
Room: 106
Time: 10:00am – 11:00am
This interactive session will highlight innovative technical assistance staffing models that can bring equitable access to sustainable facilities management for small and medium-sized districts. The session will begin with staff from the San Mateo County Office of Education (the first county office of education to achieve Gold Level Green Ribbon status) and representatives from partner agencies sharing how they collaborate to help school districts leverage funding and technical resources to catalyze systemic upgrades for their facilities. The equity-informed, data-driven approach prioritizes underserved communities to accelerate progress for transitioning existing school facilities to clean energy.
In particular, presenters will share lessons learned from the countywide Green School Facilities Data Collection Project and its methods. The second half of the workshop will be dedicated to group dialogue about opportunities, barriers, and pathways forward.
Attendees will leave with ideas for adapting the strategies for their own context, while avoiding potential pitfalls.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
- Learn successful strategies for engaging and creating partnerships with agencies in their local area
- Learn about the goals of an innovative technical assistance network model designed to pair school districts with the technical services they need for sustainable facilities projects such as waste diversion, stormwater management and transitioning to clean energy.
- Apply key learnings from the Green School Facilities Data Collection Project model to develop baseline assessments for their own schools.
- Develop ideas for how to implement this approach through small group and whole group dialogue about opportunities and barriers.
Speakers:
Julie Hilborn, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Coordinator, San Mateo County Office of Education
Susan Wright, Program Manager, San Mateo County Sustainability Department
Ron Soper, Director of Sustainable Facilities and Construction, San Mateo County Office of Education
Julie Hilborn is the Coordinator of Environmental Literacy and Sustainability at the San Mateo County Office of Education. She joined SMCOE in September of 2022 after a multi-faceted career in the formal and informal science and environmental education sectors across K-12 and the university levels. She supervises the Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Initiative at SMCOE, which provides support to San Mateo County Schools in prioritizing environmental literacy and integrating environmental sustainability and climate-ready practices across school campuses, curriculum, community, and culture. Julie holds a BA In Human Biology from Stanford, an MA from San Jose State, an administrative credential from SMCOE and a teaching credential from San Francisco State. Her husband Tim is a middle school technology teacher, with whom she shares twin 13 year-old boys. They all enjoy hiking and traveling together in the mountains of California.
Susan Wright is a Program Manager at the San Mateo County Sustainability Department where she leads climate protection initiatives including energy efficiency and decarbonization, policy development, electric vehicle adoption, and climate action planning. She also collaborates with the San Mateo County Office of Education to help school districts take advantage of incentive programs and technical assistance to save energy and transition their facilities to clean energy. Susan graduated from Principia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and holds a Master of Public Administration from Presidio Graduate School.
