Cougar
Connection
PROMOTING COMMUNITY, EXCELLENCE, AND CHARACTER
s GOALS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
What happens when nearly 100
teenagers from 13 area high schools
gather in a room for a rumbling of
the minds? You have a Youthquake!
In September, Carlynton High School
freshmen, sophomores, and juniors
Georgie Gamble, Gwen Kalimon, Natali
Lutsiv, Ethan O’Brien, Lukas Prepelka,
Audrey Robb, Simon Schriver, and Evan
Walker joined other high school teens to
take part in think-tank mission, joining the
City of Pittsburgh, local universities, and
businesses in a quest to meet 17 United
Nation (UN) Sustainability Development
Goals.
The meeting, sponsored by Covestro,
was held in the Energy Innovation
Center in the city’s Hill District. The
company appealed to teens for their
youthful energy to generate ideas,
focusing on environmental, economic,
and social sustainability outlined in the
UN Sustainability Goals and examining
techniques to apply them locally.
Pittsburgh follows New York City as the
second city in the nation to incorporate
a sustainability plan based upon the
17 key UN goals. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill
Peduto believes the goals will provide a
framework to hold the city accountable
and will make Pittsburgh better for future
generations.
The Youthquake event was organized
in collaboration with the Consortium
for Public Education, which serves as a
bridge between Pittsburgh’s business
and education communities. A wide
range of speakers addressed students
before teens from all school districts were
partnered with businesses. Together, they
have been challenged to research and
engineer solutions to design, build, and
test prototypes.
The development of sustainability
goals embraces a Project-Based Learning
(PBL) initiative where students will learn
by doing. Working collaboratively over
an extended period of time, the teams
of students will engage, investigate and
resolve to overcome the task set forth
before them. The teams will formally
present their solutions later this winter
before community and business leaders.
s DISTRICT PURCHASES STUDENT
TRANSPORT VAN
In May, the Carlynton School District
Board of Education voted to approve the
purchase a 10-passenger van. A 2019 Ford
Transit-150 XL was ordered from Woltz
and Wind Ford through the Pennsylvania
Department of General Services Costars
Students from Carlynton are partnering with Pittsburgh business leaders to develop
sustainability goals for the City of Pittsburgh based on the 17 UN Sustainable
Development Goals.
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CARLYNTON
Athletic Director Nate Milsom and Business
Manager Chris Juzwick are excited for
the opportunities a recently purchased
10-passenger van will offer students.
bidding program at a cost of $31,050. The
van will be used to transport small groups
of students to extracurricular activities and
athletic events.
As mandated costs within the district
continue to rise to an all-time high,
administrators were challenged to
develop money-saving strategies in order
to maintain programs and activities for
students. One area of concern was the cost
of transportation to particular student
events. Often, a full-sized bus was used
to take a handful of students to a math
competition, a district band festival, or a
state track meet.
Athletic Director Nathan Milsom
championed the proposal to purchase
a vehicle. Working with the business
department, Milsom calculated the costs
the district spent in the past year for
bussing 9 or fewer students to athletic
contests. The audit revealed and validated
the savings the district would realize by
purchasing its own van. By replacing buses,
the vehicle could be paid in full within two
years of purchase.
To safeguard and protect students who
will ride in the van, the board adopted
Policy 810.3,* School Vehicle Drivers,
to provide a series of guidelines and
requirements for all drivers. Only qualified,
licensed adults employed by the district will
be permitted to drive the vehicle for school-
related events.
The van will be outfitted with the school
district logo and lettering to indicate that
students are onboard. The purchase will
facilitate and preserve student experiences
and allow for additional extracurricular
opportunities that may have been
discontinued due to cost. Consequently, the
district is reducing costs and students will
reap the benefit of partaking in activities
they enjoy.
*Policy 810.3 can be found on the district
website by visiting www.carlynton.k12.pa.us/
board_of_education/policy_manual.