Make Schools Environmentally Healthy for Pre-K Children, Students and Staff

December 14, 2005

David Goldin
Facilities Management Director
San Francisco Unified School District
135 Van Ness Ave, Room 320
San Francisco, CA 94102

Re:  Action needed to improve environmental “health: of schools

Dear David,

I’m sorry to have missed you at the recent SPUR presentation regarding the Prop A bond program.  Leonard was kind enough to take the materials I had brought for you. 

As you know, they focused on my efforts in the past several months to get John Bitoff together with representatives of the City’s Department of Environment to discuss implementing a District program to purchase environmentally preferred products [EPPs]. 

I participated in a recent successful effort to pass legislation requiring that City agencies purchase EPPs, and I am looking forward to the District doing the same because the low-income pre-school children in the child development program, students and staff are potentially and needlessly exposed to a number of toxic chemicals in the products currently used by the District.  In that regard, I provided you with the summary pages from the pilot project on janitorial products done by the Department of Environment [SFE].  The study revealed that environmentally preferred janitorial products are effective and on the average no more expensive than the standard janitorial products currently used by most government agencies. The full study and results are on SFE’s web site.  The Department of Environment remains committed to meeting with John and assisting in the implementation of an EPP purchasing program.

In addition, as you know, many months ago the EPA awarded $19,000 to the District to help implement the Tools for Schools Program, adopted by the Board of Education and committed to by the District.  Ed Ochi assured the EPA representative that the District promised it would provide the additional funds needed to begin implementing the program.  Unfortunately, Ed has not submitted the paper work needed to obtain the award, no effort has been made to initiate the program over the last year, and I am concerned that EPA will cancel the award and use the funds for other purposes.

Finally, I understand that with Rhoda’s departure you are directly in charge of the District’s modernization program.  That brings up the question of how the District is using the high performance design guidelines published in March when modernizations to District facilities occur, as well as when renovations are performed with Prop A and state funds.

For the above reasons, I would like to request your help in:

1. Doing whatever is necessary for the District to implement the EPP program;
2. Getting Ed to submit the necessary paperwork to the EPA;
3. Fully implementing the Tools for Schools program as soon as possible; and,
4. Fully implementing the District’s high performance design guidelines for all modernizations and renovations in the schools.

These programs promise to help make the District’s facilities healthier for everyone.  They can be implemented with little if any additional cost to the District in the short term.  In fact, they will provide substantial savings in real dollars in the long term, and they will help improve the performance of students and staff.

I would like to meet with you to more fully discuss these issues at your earliest convenience and look forward to your responses.

cc: numerous interested stakeholders