The Sustainable and Climate Ready Schools Administrative Fellowship Program supports educational leaders to successfully drive environmental transformation across their school community, and meet the increasing curricular and facilities mandates related to environmental literacy/sustainability and climate resiliency. This program is on hold for the current school year.

This knowledge to action fellowship focuses on successfully managing change through the development and implementation of a project that does one or more of the following:

  • Greens one aspect of their school/district's facilities and operations, and utilizes these efforts in the curriculum as a laboratory for learning;
  • Develops and implements a strategic plan for integrating environmental literacy into the curriculum and instruction for all students at every grade level;
  • Supports a project that prepares the school/district to be Climate Ready in one focus area (high heat, floods, wildfires, trauma-informed practices for climate change, etc).

Core Components

This fellowship has three core components that fellows must complete in order to be eligible for a final stipend, mini-grants, and continuing education units (CEUs). Find details about each of these components below.

Workshops and Ongoing Learning

The monthly workshops, asynchronous learning, and coaching sessions are where the majority of program objectives take place (i.e. strengthening knowledge base, skill-building, network creation, and project support).

Community Impact Project

Projects are aligned to a focus area pathway, listed below, that fellows chose during the application process. The project is a change management effort that advances sustainability and/or climate resiliency within the fellow's school community. At the start of this project, fellows will complete a baseline assessment. Coaches will then guide fellows to develop and implement a plan of action from this assessment, and measure impact.

Final Deliverables

All participants of the program will submit a reflection case study and complete an oral presentation. 

Focus Area Pathways

Fellows in the Sustainable and Climate Ready Schools Administrator Fellowship must choose a focus area pathway, which will become the central focus area of the fellow’s Community Impact Project. These pathways allow for increased environmental literacy and action across school communities and districts. See a list of focus area pathways below, with research support and sample projects.

Focus Area

Sample Projects: Campus as a Laboratory for Learning 

Zero Waste and Sustainable Food

  • Implement a site level or district-wide waste diversion program that focuses on reducing waste, waste sorting, or waste hauling and processing
  • Farm to fork and other sustainable sourcing
  • Plant-based meals

Living Schoolyards (Land-Based Ecosystems and Grounds)

  • Outdoor learning spaces including: classrooms, breakouts, trails, native plant gardens, vegetable gardens, etc. 
  • Drought tolerant landscaping
  • Tree canopy or heat island reduction
  • Biodiversity
  • Stormwater pollution prevention

Water Resiliency

  • Indoor and outdoor water conservation efforts
  • Water quality
  • Stormwater collection and pollution prevention
  • Drought planning
  • Sea Level Rise

Energy and Transportation Resiliency

  • Energy conservation  
  • Capital improvements*: efficiency, renewables, solar to battery storage, fleet electrification
  • Carbon offsets and allowances
  • HVAC systems
  • Green commute: EV charging stations, safe routes, no idling 

To learn more about the content and activities for past cohorts visit the Administrative Program Website, and to see examples of case studies from past fellows visit the 2020 Cohort Page or the 2021 Cohort Page

Julie Hilborn

Coordinator, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability

Email: jhilborn@smcoe.org

Phone: (650) 802-5406