Katonah-Lewisboro school board focuses on sustainability

By JEFF MORRIS 

With Earth Day as the backdrop, the Katonah-Lewisboro School District Board of Education devoted most of its April 22 meeting to a presentation on the district’s sustainability efforts, intended to fulfill its three-year sustainability vision and plan. It also approved a couple of notable items as part of its consent agenda.

The stated vision in the three-year plan is to “solidify the Katonah-Lewisboro School District as a leader in sustainability education, operations, and community engagement by 2027.” 

Narratives were provided by members of the administration, faculty, and sustainability committee. Much of the presentation was centered around classroom lessons and activities designed to integrate sustainability into the curriculum, with short videos showing students at different grade levels engaged in projects as part of teaching units focused on sustainability themes.

What the district is itself doing to reduce its environmental impact was the topic during the latter part of the presentation, led by Assistant Superintendent for Business Lisa Herlihy and Director of Facilities Mike Lavoie. 

Herlihy said the district’s initiatives related to buildings, grounds, transportation, and food service programs — both those already under way and those planned for the 2024-25 school year — reflect their “commitment to environmental responsibility, operational efficiencies, as well as enriching student learning.”

Lavoie said KLSD is investing in significant infrastructure improvements that are directly aimed at reducing its environmental footprint. The “one big one that everybody is keeping a close eye on” is the geothermal project at Katonah Elementary School. He said he was happy to report that “things are moving along.”

“The most important thing to know about this is the geothermal well system will not only decrease the reliance on fossil fuels for the heating system at Katonah, but it will introduce air conditioning for the entire building,” said Lavoie. “This will enhance the student comfort and sustainability simultaneously. The occupant experience is really important in buildings.”

Lavoie also said the district is exploring an energy performance contract that is specifically designed to equip every school roof with photovoltaic solar panels. 

“This is a very ambitious initiative,” he said, “aimed to build a system with a capacity upwards of around 2,300 kilowatts, which annually could generate 2.3 to 3 million kWh.” He said this would promise substantial energy cost reductions throughout the district. “To put that in perspective, our average was about 4.3 million kWh, so you’re looking at a potential infusion of about 50 percent or so of sustainable electricity.”

Waste management remains a cornerstone of the district’s sustainability efforts, said Lavoie. “Across all cafeterias we have implemented comprehensive recycling and composting practices,” he said, noting they have transitioned to compostable trays and utensils. “We ensure that our waste is managed in an environmentally responsible manner, aligning with circular economy principles.”

Herlihy pointed out that the district is constructing a greenhouse adjacent to the John Jay Middle School family consumer science classrooms, where students will gain hands-on experience in agriculture, nutrition and resource conservation, “fostering a deeper understanding of sustainability among our students.”

The district is also continuing to invest in sustainable transportation options, said Herlihy. They are adding six electric buses to the fleet, one of which was ordered in the last school year, which has yet to arrive; five of which were just recently approved that will be ordered once they know the timeline for installation of chargers.

“We are installing eight EV chargers at the high school, as well as eight EV chargers at the middle school,” said Herlihy. “They will be commuter car chargers; that means that our staff, our students, as well as members of our community, at their own cost, can use the chargers to charge their electric vehicles.”

Herlihy added that since the district’s electrical capacity needs to be upgraded, they will be converting the chargers at the high school to charge the six microbuses. “That’s actually been part of the reason we have delayed purchasing the buses; we simply do not have the electrical capacity.” She said that is part of the request in the next school year’s budget, to use excess funds from the current school year to begin to do the work to upgrade electrical capacity.

As an aside, Herlihy noted that some of her colleagues in the region are just getting interested in composting, and had sent around a survey asking questions about it. She said she sent a note, saying “You should reach out to my colleague Mike Lavoie, because we’ve had composting here for quite a number of years.” She said he has spoken with them about how composting had been incorporated in the district’s waste management program.

She pointed as well to a number of other steps the district had taken over the years, going back to the establishment of KLSD sustainability principles in 2005, including an energy performance contract 12 years ago; switching to LED lights in 2021; and installing water filling stations in 2014, while “many districts still today don’t have these water filling stations; the work done here has been really ahead of its time.”

Consent agenda

There were two items of note in the consent agenda. 

The board approved extending the LES/Shady Lane Committee charge to October 2025.

And, at the superintendent’s recommendation, the board accepted the resignation of director of guidance and counseling, Marisa Merlino, effective Aug. 31, 2025, for the purpose of retirement.