Feegel
Healthy Schools/Environmental Hazards
Q: Do
you support the creation of an interdepartmental task force to review and
revise maintenance practices and materials policies to improve the health and
safety of out students?
A: Yes.
Not only do I support and "interdepartmental task force" I would like
to see this group expanded to include members from outside the
Loudoun County Pubic School system. It is my opinion that not only
does the present school administration stifle creativity, innovation
and resourcefulness; it dismisses input from parents, teachers, environmental
experts and independent consultants. My candidacy is an attempt to call
attention to their arrogance and incompetence.
A nice person by nature, Mrs. Godfrey, the
current Chairwoman of the Construction, Finance and Site Acquisition committee
has not demonstrated interest, awareness, or leadership in environmental
prioritization and new school construction. Under her tenure, numerous
schools have been designed or built. None really qualify as green. It is
simply not a priority of the school administration and sadly therefore not
an issue for Mrs. Godfrey. When Sym Van der Ryn said at the 2006 Green
School Conference in Los Angles, that we have �lost connection between
buildings and place, � Mrs. Godfrey should have been there.
If I prevail in November election,
I will request the School Board Chairman to appoint me as new Construction
chair. In this seat I can begin to emphasize the 20 to 1 return on green
school design. (Cap-e: Oct. 10, 2006 article from LCCSS links) From this seat,
I can change the public and school administration misperceptions green schools
cost more (68%), have few benefits (64%), and the benefits are vague (47%)
(Turner: footnote 1).
Healthy Schools/School Nutrition
Q: Please
rank the following initiatives according to your priorities:
A: I
inserted a few of my own. It appears to me they are just about in order
already!
1. BAN
sale of candy, soda, sweets (and ice cream) in schools.� NPR had a nifty segment on childhood obesity
Aug. 30.
2. Adopt
a healthy snack policy. (including parents bringing in junk to give
to other children.� They cannot
bring in tobacco or booze, so why should the distribution of processed sugars
be permissible?)
3. Empower
staff and faculty to guide students to eat healthy (LCPS policy is to
refrain form suggesting eating habits.�
Staff and teachers should be empowered to guide students to better
choices, and conversely, away from wasted calories.� When I taught, I was admonished for asking a child to finish the
lunch her mother made for her before buying ice cream. According to LCPS, I was
out of line. This needs to change.)
4. Monitor food
waste by students. Students should be educated about their food waste and
the results of their decisions to throw away, visa-vie resulting insulin
rebound and after school sugar cravings, and ethics when view via world
hunger.
5.
Initiate partnership with local farms and school food service.
(cite: E Magazine, p.42 September/Oct. 2007 �The 100-Mile Diet�)
6.
Incorporate in=school kitchen gardens and local economy education.
(cite E Magazine, p.40 September/Oct. 2007 �Nature is the Best Medicine:
More hospitals are incorporating healing gardens�)
7.
Packaging literacy over remaining pair.� (This is a terrific skill too few know how to use.)
8.
Extend packaging literacy, in Spanish too, to parents.
9.
meal preparation/selection workshop
Q.2������ Will I initiate a review and follow-up to
improve food services?
����������� Yes.� I worked as a lunch room monitor at Lincoln school and have spent
many hours speaking with the food service staff.� No one knows the frustration better than I about teaching healthy
eating habits to elementary school children.�
It is at this level bad habits are cemented into their behavior.� The waste and sugar addiction is mind
boggling.� I�ve taken out the trash.
Q.3������ Yes, sustainability is a guiding
principle to the food service curriculum.
Q:�������� Would I support pro sustainable changes
to the building standards to yield healthier environments (indoors and out)�..?
A:�������� Yes.� Environmental impact is more important than
my candidacy.� It is no longer accurate
to look at the green issue as a �tree huggers only� issue.� Construction waste is probably my favorite
construction issue. The volumes and watershed repercussions are mind
blowing.� I would make every child go to
the land fill to see personally what (does not) happen to solid waste.� The dump would be a �field� trip
destination.
����������� On
the construction side, I have good friends at HITT, Clark Construction, Perini,
Turner and Whiting and Charles Smith who could assist me express the value of
going green to fellow school board members.�
It is all about a �five vote�.�
Word is out that not
only is it aesthetically pleasing, green school construction is smart
economically too.� Now is the time to
build consensus between the Birkenstock sandal and wingtip wearers.� We all have kids sitting in these buildings,
and unforgivably some are formaldehyde carpeted/insulated.� No wonder asthma is so rampant.� My opponent Mrs. Godfrey is the Chairwoman
of the Construction, Finance and Site selection committee.� For the past four years, she has shown no
real appreciation for green school construction.� See her attached e-mail when a constituent asked about it.� I do not need a paid consultant to see the
green benefit.
"Dear
Mrs. Godfrey:
Please
tell me how many schools (at all levels) have been designed, drawn, and
constructed since 2004 in Loudoun County Virginia? How many are currently
being built?
Which
is the best example of a "green school"?
Thanks,
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 10:36:35 AM
Subject: Re: school question
Marti,
I have forwarded your query to our construction department to make sure I have
accurate information. The green school aspects of our current school
models is being investigated by the Rehau company and we do not have the
results as yet from that.
Mr.
Randy Vlad will respond directly to you or I will get back to you.
Thanks,
Priscilla Godfrey
Sustainable Schools Initiative
Q:�������� Would I support the creation of a
school system-wide sustainable schools initiative?
A:�������� Yes.�
I would also include knowledgeable private sector parties to the
table.� It would take forever to re-tool
the bureaucratic leviathan called LCPS to master this common sense issue.� Farmers, planners, fishermen, sailors,
hikers, (heck were on the AT) and recyclers could better express the needs,
ways and fun in sustainable communities.�
The greatest impediment is the bureaucracy.� It is not the parents, they understand.� It is not the corporation, they get it too.
It is the school administration that would rather hold onto their control than
be innovative.� I am running for school
board because the system is broke and broken.�
It is just as immoral and counter-productive for the school
administrators to put their agenda above the community�s, as it is for
industrialist to place their shareholders over their grandchildren.
------------------------------------------
END ------------------------------------------
Thanks
for reading all this. I invested considerable time responding.� Let me know if I can clarify, or learn
more.� Appreciate the links you sent.
They were very helpful.� If I prevail,
please help me become greener.� We can
do amazing things together.
Yours truly,
John Feegel
School
Board Candidate, Blue Ridge District
Philomont,
VA
540-338-5246
Footnotes:
1.)
Turner Construction Comp., 2005 Survey of Green Buildings:
Cap-e.com website.