SCHOOL REPORT : Expansion Planned for Recycling, Energy Conservation Programs

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education meets the first and third Monday of each month. Important actions and other information about the meetings will be included in School Report.

District officials unveiled a plan Monday to expand recycling and energy-saving programs to all the district’s 600 campuses and administrative offices.

The district has pilot programs to donate unused food and wood clippings, sell used materials such as textbooks and tires, and recycle paper, plastic bags and foam lunch trays at some schools. The proposed program, to be voted on Oct. 29th, would require students to separately dispose of their foam lunch trays and wastepaper. They would be picked up weekly and recycled, with proceeds going to individual schools.

The district spends $1.4 million annually to purchase 50 million foam trays for student lunches. The used trays can be sold and recycled to create plastic products, such as yo-yos and rulers. The new program would also offer financial incentives to schools that cut water use, replace campus lights with energy-saving bulbs, buy more recycled products and encourage schools to teach students about recycling and water and energy conservation measures.

The board also:

Voted to spend $2.7 million to restore some of its driver training program, which was cut because of a veto by the governor. About 13,000 students will be able to take the classes--half the number served when the state funded the program.

FUTURE FILE

PARENT PARTNER: The board will consider a motion by member Roberta Weintraub to add a non-voting parent representative to its discussion table. A parent would be chosen from each board district and would serve for four board meetings. The motion will be discussed next month and voted on in December.

Classroom Capsule

The district is expected to grow by more than 85,000 students during the next four years, sending enrollment to an all-time high of 695,700 by the 1994-95 school year.