The Madison Metropolitan School District is pushing back its sustainability goal by five years, a timeline Madison School Board members say is more feasible than the original plan they adopted in 2019.
The district is now pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2045, as part of a nonbinding resolution the School Board unanimously voted to amend at a meeting Monday.
The initial goal, approved by the board in 2019, was to reach 100% renewable energy by 2040. The district’s finance administrator said that would have been “almost impossible” to achieve due to the cost and complexity of the work involved. It would have cost $1 billion and temporarily closed nine schools each year between 2026 and 2030 for renovations.
Many students hoped the district would maintain its initial 2040 goal, said Talia Richmond, a student representative on the board. But School Board President Nichelle Nichols said the extension allows the district to “reset” its sustainability efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic put them on pause.
Under the updated resolution, the district is committing to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, a 75% reduction by 2040 and a 100% reduction by 2045. To reach the goal, a majority of schools will need to be outfitted for electrical heating.
Nearly 75% of the district’s energy use currently comes from natural gas to heat buildings, according to board materials. Only 4% of the district’s energy comes from renewable electricity.
Compared with the original renewable energy goal, the updated resolution requires fewer schools to close at once and comes at a lower starting cost. Still, it’s unclear how many schools will need to close each year or how much money taxpayers will need to initially invest for the renovations. Bob Soldner, the district’s assistant superintendent for financial services, was unable to provide estimates.
The board previously floated changing the resolution to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. For comparison, the initial cost to start renovations for that option would have been $275 million, according to board materials.
The 2040 goal would have also caused three schools to temporarily close each year beginning in 2026. The district currently is capable of closing only two schools a year, Soldner said Monday.
Funding for the necessary sustainability upgrades would require a combination of grants, donations and voter-approved tax referendums. The costs to renovate would be part of the facilities referendum the board is already likely to add to the ballot this November.
The district currently expects to start the next fiscal year in July with a $12.4 million budget deficit, according to MMSD spokesman Ian Folger. That estimate does not account for a 4.12% base wage increase the Madison teachers union is seeking, which would cost $13.3 million.
Yet School Board member Ali Muldrow said the district can no longer “treat the exponential threat of climate change like an expensive inconvenience.”
“We have to treat this work like it’s necessary in order to protect the future of our young people,” she said. “I think that this resolution is the step in the right direction.”
Still, setting the new timeline is only the beginning, Richmond told the board.
“It’s very essential that we have a concrete plan how to achieve this goal,” she said. “We can't afford to continue to push back these critical commitments to students.”
