WE WON! HIGH SCHOOL GETS $10M FOR EV PROGRAM
Electric buses mean no greenhouse gas emissions in our neighborhoods as they pick up students and take them to school.
S Curve Strategies donated 80 hours to write a $10 million grant on behalf of San Diego Unified School District students…and we WON!
The California Air Resources Board today announced a first-of-its-kind program to fund projects promoting zero-emission transportation options for students, parents, and staff members.
Students of Lincoln High School and its 13 elementary feeder schools are the real winners. They will soon have a program that improves air quality in their neighborhood with new electric school buses, electric trucks, electric landscape and custodial equipment, an electric bike pilot program, trolley vouchers, an electric food delivery truck, and an electric community outreach vehicle.
The California Air Resources Board’s $10 million Clean Mobility in Schools Pilot Project Grant set out to find a school district to create the most innovative electric mobility program in an area heavily impacted by poor air quality. The funds were made possible by the California Climate Investments proceeds from cap and trade to support efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deliver major economic, environmental, public health benefits to communities with exponentially poor air quality.
Along with S Curve Strategies numerous partners jumped in with matching in-kind donations to support the effort: CALSTART, Center for Sustainable Energy, Circulate San Diego, Cleantech San Diego, Environmental Health Coalition, San Diego Gas & Electric, Black & Veatch, and Nuvve.
“Giving back with your time and talent in an industry you love is both powerful and rewarding. Especially when the beneficiaries are our local students. ”
As any school district will tell you, they don’t often have extra staff to write and apply for grants nor budget to hire someone to write it for them. Knowing this, S Curve Strategies President April Bolduc made the decision before approaching the San Diego Unified School District to volunteer to draft the application and outreach to partners. They took her up on the offer and the effort paid off for local students when a 150-page application was submitted.
The San Diego Unified School District’s Lincoln High School is located in a community near the Port of San Diego and within San Diego County’s worst air quality. The minority student population is 99% – which is 76% higher than the state average.
The Lincoln High School Clean Mobility in Schools Pilot Project creates transformative, synergistic emissions reduction strategies for the school’s transportation options and positively impacts the air quality of this disadvantaged community. The effort will increase the visibility of and access to zero-emission transportation options by placing commercially available zero-emissions technologies and supporting charging infrastructure in the school.
A San Diego Unified School District high school will benefit from a $10 million transportation electrification grant.
The program will also benefit the13 Lincoln High School feeder elementary and middle schools, also located within this underserved community. Elements implemented through the project include:
13 electric school buses with managed charging, vehicle-to-grid
Electric food truck program
Electric community outreach vehicle
Electric bicycle pilot for senior students and teachers
Zero-emission commercial grade landscape and custodial equipment
Passenger vehicles for car-sharing and vanpooling for school purposes
Battery storage
Robust public education effort
Replicable blueprint for use by other districts throughout the state, and potentially the U.S.