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Home ยป News ยป News ยป Mills Administration Hires California-Based Nonprofit to Guide Public Schools Toward Zero Carbon Goals
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Mills Administration Hires California-Based Nonprofit to Guide Public Schools Toward Zero Carbon Goals

Edward TomicBy Edward TomicDecember 13, 2024Updated:December 13, 202419 Comments3 Mins Read1K Views
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Maine Governor Janet Mills’ Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) is paying $12,500 to a California-based nonprofit that will advise state agencies on how to transition all Maine K-12 public schools to zero carbon emissions in order to address the “changing climate.”

[RELATED: Mills Admin Discloses Payments to Press Herald for Publishing Positive Articles on Maine Public Schools, DOE Spendingโ€ฆ]

Passed and signed into law during the 131st Maine Legislature, LD 1606 directed the Maine Department of Education (Maine DOE) and GOPIF to “assist public elementary and secondary schools in the State with achieving energy efficiency and maximizing the use of clean energy.”

That guidance also includes advice for public schools to contract with “clean energy” providers to develop contracting guidance in order to “assist the schools with saving money through energy efficiency, clean energy and clean transportation projects.”

[RELATED: Winthrop Schools Struggle to Keep Electric School Buses on the Road Due to Water Leak Issues, Heating System Failuresโ€ฆ]

Under the bill, the Maine DOE and GOPIF are required to submit a report of its activities and guidance for public school green energy policies to the Legislature by Jan. 31, 2025.

According to a state contract document published Wednesday, the Mills administration will be paying $12,500 to the San Francisco-based nonprofit Undaunted K-12 to satisfy the directives given in LD 1606.

“The selected vendor is uniquely qualified to advise on both state and federal funding to support Maineโ€™s K-12 public schools to make an equitable transition to zero carbon emissions in the face of a changing climate,” the contract reads.

[RELATED: Portland Schoolsโ€™ Equity Push Aims for All Students to Have Equal Outcomes, Equal Experiencesโ€ฆ]

“The vendor and staff have recognized experience and expertise synthesizing guidance and curating relevant resources to help districts understand and make the most of both new and legacy school funding sources in order to achieve energy efficiency and maximizing the use of clean energy,” it reads.

In September, the Mills administration hired Glenn Cummings, a longtime Democratic politician and government employee, into a $121,000-a-year position as the director of the Maine DOE’s new “Green Schools Program.”

[RELATED: Hack-o-Rama: Longtime Dem, Gov Employee Hired in $121k per Year Role as Maine โ€˜Green Schools Directorโ€™…]

As โ€œgreen schools director,โ€ Cummings is tasked with coordinating the Maine DOEโ€™s initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the stateโ€™s public schools, a goal that GOPIF states will be achieved by being more energy efficient and โ€œadopting cleaner technologies.โ€

The green schools director position was initially proposed last year in a bill, L.D. 612, from Rep. Marc Malon (D-Biddeford). That bill, passed by the Maine House and Senate along party lines with support from Democrats, died on the appropriations table in late July 2023.

[RELATED: New Report Analyzes the Decades-Long Decline of Maine K-12 Educationโ€ฆ]

Funding for the position was included, however, in the Maine DOE budget approved by the 131st Legislature at the end of the session.

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Edward Tomic

Edward Tomic is a reporter for The Maine Wire based in Southern Maine. He grew up near Boston, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Boston University. He can be reached at [email protected]

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mark violette
mark violette
1 year ago

Zero carbon meet reality

6
Knot nice
Knot nice
1 year ago

Address โ€œchanging climate.โ€ Climate change, j mills here nice to meet you. Here have some tax payers money.

5
beachmom
beachmom
1 year ago

The kids can’t read or write and the state is a billion $ behind but hey, spend more to teach the kids that the climate hoax is real.
Mills & Co are so destructive and I don’t think it’s because they’re stupid. I think they just really want to make Maine a socialist/communist “paradise”

15
Eric H.
Eric H.
1 year ago

Janet Mills and the idiots in Augusta should worry about kids being able to add 3+ 2 and spell any six letter word and NOT carbon neutrality.
Gimme a break . Go ahead Janetโ€ฆโ€ฆ blow some more of my money .

11
patriot124
patriot124
1 year ago

More taxes.

7
Joel
Joel
1 year ago

Perhaps our idiot governor should actually take a good hard look at California. Are the successful at ANYTHING? Another attempt to pander communist votes.

9
ME Infidel
ME Infidel
1 year ago

In a nutshell that even an Ivy League college student can understand:

  1. No one wants pollution which we CAN address and solve to a certain extent.
  2. The climate changes on earth naturally and cyclically as it has done for 4.5 billion years and humans canโ€™t solve it.

Class dismissed.

11
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY
1 year ago

This Governor is insane.Get her to the nearest drug rehab center for evaluation. What she is doing is child abuse and if the evaluation shows she isn’t completely bonkers, then indict her, put her in front of her peers and let justice rule.

8
Mark Wheelin
Mark Wheelin
1 year ago

Only one place left to guide Maine public education: where it s already headed. The toilet
Mills, and all the other ugly lesbian cat ladies running this disgrace of a state work for satan, not taxpayers

5
Robert
Robert
1 year ago

Mills conclusively proves that you can’t fix stupid.

7
Neecee
Neecee
1 year ago

Janet Mills fantasy is to be just like California

6
Rooster
Rooster
1 year ago

Because it is working so well in California…

8
Conservative
Conservative
1 year ago

Ms Mills… a question – How much Carbon is currently being emitted from Maine schools?
I do not think that you will find that there has been any increase in emissions for the past decades.
The climate hoax needs to be addressed and put to bed, once and for all! We need CO2 for plants and trees, they in turn provide O2. Basic biology and chemistry, something that the kids in Maine are lacking in their education.
Spend Mainers taxes on things that matter!!!!!

6
Rooster
Rooster
1 year ago

Banning the use of private jets, Congressional junkets etc would do wonder for the climate, lets start there.

6
mark violette
mark violette
1 year ago

This is just a form of political grift, we a state run doge

4
John
John
1 year ago

Lets just light our money on fire. Thanks Mills.

4
Paco
Paco
1 year ago

If children are harmed by freezing cold they should be able to use her .

1
Paco
Paco
1 year ago

Sue

1
Andy K
Andy K
1 year ago

For God’s sake Mills, drop the green energy bunk. The scam is over. These kids need to learn the basics, math, science and reading.

2
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