Agenda 10-19-2021; 6-a - Community Climate Action Grant (CCAG) – FY 2021-22 Project Selection for General Applicants

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22 expenses, and connect with our students and community more fully while engaging with an emerging technology." Grant Dollars Requested Per Metric Ton of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduced During Project Lifetime: $ $4,158.55 HRC Comments: Overall the HRC reviewer felt that there may be a better way of spending this money to support racial equity in County schools.The proposal lacked evidence of the need for these administrative vehicles. If the three proposed cars are indeed needed in the administrative fleet of CHCCS, and leasing them means that gasoline powered cars will not be used for this necessary travel,then when combined with using the cars as a teaching tool this proposal might be worth funding. Ideally, any avoided costs in the completion of this project would be used in the schools for more direct social justice programming or materials. CFE Comments:The CFE recommends not funding this application.While electric vehicles should be added to the CHCCS fleet,the administrative vehicles proposed would be the least impactful to electrify since they are driven so little each year.There were several unresolved questions about how these vehicles would be used by staff and whether they were necessary. Further, a lack of charging infrastructure at the schools where these vehicles would be placed raises additional questions about whether they would be ready for use when needed for the proposed administrative travel. Two of the three proposed electric vehicles,the Tesla Model 3 and Ford Mustang Mach-E are expensive and impractical sports cars.The CFE reviewers questioned whether this choice of vehicle was an effective use of grant funds. The CFE liked the idea of using electric vehicles as teaching tools to make sustainable technologies more exciting and tangible.The idea of exposing a new generation of our community's leaders and thinkers to electric vehicles in our schools was well-supported by reviewers. Unfortunately, the lease arrangement for these vehicles makes it hard to believe that they would be useful teaching tools as they would not be able to be disassembled and reassembled by the students. Electric vehicles that students could simply view up close but not work on could likely be provided for free in other ways by parent volunteers or local non-profits. The CFE understands that this project proposal had to be written very quickly and is impressed by what the brand new CHCCS Sustainability Director was able to pull together in such a short time. For these reasons,the CFE recommends that the applicant address these concerns and for the project to be resubmitted.