Interactive Workshop: Catalyzing Systemic School Facilities Upgrades through Multi-Agency Partnerships

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
Laura Wong, Sustainability Specialist, San Mateo County Sustainability Department
Ron Soper, Director of Sustainable Facilities and Construction, San Mateo County Office of Education

Speaker Photos and Bio’s Coming Soon!

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