May 9, 2024 Newsletter

As the natural landscape around us blooms, so do the many graduates celebrating this graduation season. In May, we celebrate the CAELI COE Fellowship Graduates, and the many incredible California schools and leaders being recognized for their commitments to environmental literacy and sustainability. Finally, we are sharing the final topics and registration links that are finishing out the popular 2023-24 webinar series programs. RSVP for May’s sessions or find past recordings below.

💐 What to expect this month:

• COE Fellowship Graduation
• RSVP for Troubleshooting Districtwide Challenges
• Green Ribbon Honorees
• Risk Management and Compliance Webinar
• Innovation Hub Spotlight
• Opportunities, News, & Events

Celebrating Our COE Fellowship Graduates!

Celebrate with the CAELI’s County Office of Education (COE) Innovation Hub as we applaud the graduation of the second CAELI COE Fellowship cohort. The 2023-24 cohort consisted of fourteen dedicated fellows from six counties. This month we reflect on their journey from kickoff retreat to capstone presentations, where fellows showcased actionable plans for leading high impact county-wide environmental literacy and sustainability initiatives. Learn more about the fellow’s journey’s and their action plans.

Read our reflections about graduation on our blog.

RSVP for May 30 | Troubleshooting Districtwide Challenges

This month’s District Innovation Hub Webinar will dive into solving challenges to districtwide challenges when integrating environmental literacy and sustainability initiatives and efforts. Most Californians believe that our schools should be environmentally sustainable and that our students should be environmentally literate. Yet, at times it feels like there are a number of hurdles and barriers to achieving this in local school districts. This webinar will focus on practical solutions to helping leaders overcome the challenges standing between efforts and success.

Join us on Thursday, May 30 at 4 pm PST as we hear from districts about how they achieved success, followed by informal discussions to collectively learn ways to troubleshoot challenges with districtwide sustainability and environmental literacy.

Check out our website for more information and register for the webinar here.

Recognizing 2024 California Green Ribbon School Honorees

🎉 Congratulations to all schools, districts, and COEs who were recognized as a 2024 California Green Ribbon School Honoree! We are honored to support so many CAELI members across the state — see the list below and the associated CAELI members.

CAELI Member Districts

• Cabrillo USD (Green) – Sean McPhetridge
• Modesto City USD (Gold) – Gilbert Rosas
• Laguna Beach (Gold) – Gloria Harwood
• Moorpark Unified School District (Bronze) – Nathan Inouye

CAELI Member County Offices of Education

• San Mateo COE (Gold) – Julie Hilborn
• San Joaquin COE (Silver) – Katie Burns, Kristine Stepping, Tamara Basepayne

School Sites and Related CAELI Members

• 24th Street Elementary, Los Angeles Unified (Bronze) – Gerry Salazar
• Charlotte N. Werner Elementary, Rialto Unified (Bronze) – Juanita Chan-Roden
• Levi Bemis Elementary, Rialto Unified (Bronze) – Juanita Chan-Roden
• John Muir Elementary, Berkeley Unified (Bronze) – Ellen McClure

The California Green Ribbon award acknowledges schools, districts, early learning centers, and postsecondary institutions that demonstrate progress in reducing environmental impacts and costs, improving health and wellness, and providing effective environmental and sustainability education. Read the California Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Announcement news release to learn more about California’s Green Ribbon program.

Join us in Celebrating! Congratulate the honorees through our social media posts. Share on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

May 28 – Risk Management and Compliance for Community Based Partners

We’re happy to see the enthusiasm for the joint webinar series ‘Building a Strong and Resilient Organization’, hosted in partnership between the CAELI CBP Innovation Hub and AEOE. Our funding conversation last month was both engaging and impactful. Watch our past recordings on our webinars page.

Join us on Tuesday, May 28 as we conclude the 2023–2024 webinar series, by sharing insights into managing risk and compliance for environmental literacy.

RSVP for May’s webinar

Innovation Hub Spotlight

CAELI’s innovation hubs represent a growing community of people dedicated to environmental literacy and outdoor education for youth. Here, we introduce one of our innovation hub members!

Opportunities, Events, and News

• Join CAELI and Ten Strands for the release of our new podcast ‘Environmental Superheroes of the ELA Classroom.’ We will be celebrating the release of the podcast and sharing insights and resources for educators on May 15 at 4:00pm PST. RSVP for the Podcast Release Party.

• The celebration continues with Modesto City Schools being recognized at the Sustainable Facilities Forum for a Leadership Award. Special congratulations to CAELI Member Gilbert Rosas who leads the program as Director of Sustainability & Adaptation.

• The new Climate Corps website was launched on Earth Day in April as a new portal for young Americans to find and apply to climate jobs and training programs. Here’s how to apply.

Follow Us On Social Media!

Check out CAELI’s social media pages using the buttons below so you can stay up-to-date with the latest stories about environmental literacy.