To address the lack of student engagement with existing sustainability initiatives, we, in partnership with our Sustainability Club, began by conducting surveys among 250+ FISD students, teachers, and staff to identify areas of interest and gaps in current initiatives. This phase included mapping out each school’s environmental footprint and scoping out key areas where student participation could make a significant impact, such as waste reduction and sustainable land use.

We also gathered feedback from staff members from campus' child nutrition, maintenance, technology, and custodial departments to better understand their existing sustainability practices and ideate ways to better integrate student involvement. Based on research insights, we distilled our efforts into 5 key outlets: Recycling, food waste, land use, volunteering, and education.

To promote recycling and more sustainable waste management, students from branches of the Sustainability Club and existing environment clubs across 5 FISD campuses worked to develop a machine learning mobile app to allow students to track their recycling efforts and compete monthly in real-time against other lunch periods within their school as well as schools in the district, where students earned points and badges for recycling plastic bags, plastic films, batteries, and e-waste through a scanner that classified and counted pieces of waste.

Each month, the club set achievable milestones and goals for participating students, such as reaching a certain amount of recycled materials or increasing participation rates.

To promote the use of recyclable and reusable bags over single-use plastics (SUPs) in school cafeterias, we partnered with the art department at 4 FISD elementary schools to host "Bag-up" days, where students upcycled old t-shirts and fabrics into reusable bags personalized with eco-friendly slogans and designs and used SUPs to create artwork. These custom bags were distributed free of charge to students and faculty, encouraging widespread adoption.

We took a three-pronged approach to handle food waste at select schools, starting by installing composters capable of processing 2,000 pounds of food waste annually per school across FISD campuses. At Liberty, Independence, Reedy, and Panther Creek, we were able to coordinate collaborations between agriculture, FFA, AP Environmental Science, and AP Human Geography classes, where students involved in these programs learned about hands-on compost management, nutrient cycling, and sustainable agriculture prac.

Along the same lines, we established or expanded school gardens at 16 FISD campuses, where students locally grew produce using composted materials, providing fresh vegetables for school cafeterias and reducing reliance on external food sources by an average of 14%.

By promoting trayless lunches, we successfully decreased cafeteria food waste among these campuses by 28%. We also implemented a program to convert fruit and vegetable waste in particular into compost using the composters, reducing landfill contributions by an average of 15%. Surplus food was donated to local food banks, totaling over 1,100 pounds.

To ensure sustainable land use, we initiated comprehensive programs that focused on classroom cleanouts, neighborhood, and campus cleanups, and the preservation of riparian areas near streams, ponds, and lakes in partnership with Frisco Environmental Services (Clean It and Green It) and school chapters of environmental clubs, boys/girls scouts, classes (Leadworthy), and service societies (NHS, NJHS). This involved a detailed mapping of areas requiring attention and engaging students in hands-on projects to maintain and enhance these spaces.

For instance, we organized monthly cleanups where students from multiple FISD campuses worked together to clear litter and debris, particularly targeting high-traffic areas around schools and local water bodies. These efforts included removing invasive species and planting native vegetation to stabilize soil and improve local biodiversity.

We also implemented an informal "Adopt-a-stream" program, where student groups took responsibility for monitoring and maintaining the health of specific riparian zones. The combined efforts resulted in a 24% decrease in waste in these zones over 4 months across 10 FISD campuses.

The Sustainability Club, active across several FISD campuses, led various volunteer initiatives to engage students in practical sustainability efforts.

For instance, Memorial High School's FFA students took the lead in educating kindergarteners about basic agricultural practices, providing hands-on learning experiences such as planting seeds and caring for small garden plots.

At Rogers Elementary, volunteers organized planting days where students and their families participated in creating and maintaining school gardens, fostering a sense of community and environmental responsibility from a young age.

Additionally, volunteers played a crucial role in sorting and managing recyclable materials, such as batteries, ensuring they were properly disposed of to prevent environmental harm.

They also organized events to collect and sort donated toilet paper tubes and seeds, which were then assembled into seed starter kits. These kits were distributed to local schools and community members, promoting home gardening and sustainable practices. The combined efforts of these volunteer activities not only enhanced sustainability awareness but also instilled practical skills and environmental stewardship among students, contributing to a 20% increase in student participation in sustainability programs across the district based on post-program surveys.

To promote sustainability education across FISD, we used our Global Sustainability Scholars Program (GSSP) to integrate sustainability curricula and cross-curricular projects into various subjects, including elementary science classes, AP Environmental Science, agriculture, and AP Human Geography. These modules included hands-on activities such as building small-scale geothermal heat pump models to demonstrate efficient energy systems and conducting experiments with bipolar ionization to purify air in classrooms.

High-performing students in these programs had the opportunity to matriculate into the Global Sustainability Scholars Program Fellowship, gaining advanced knowledge and leadership skills in sustainability. Overall, these efforts resulted in a 30% increase in student engagement with sustainability initiatives and a noticeable improvement in the environmental literacy of the student body.

The map below shows a consequence of odd zoning laws for a bus servicing Frisco High School. Despite covering most of the zone (almost 7 mi), the bus only has 2 stops. If only 2 more stops were added, this one bus could serve the entire western portion (9% of the zone) for Frisco HS, without adding more than a mile to the existing route or going over 2.5 people a seat according to attendance estimates.

Taking into account inefficiencies like these, we developed a machine learning model that took into account features such as student addresses, bus stop locations, attendance data, travel times, road conditions, and route performance. By analyzing these data points, our model identified optimal stop placements and route adjustments that balanced efficiency with capacity. This approach not only minimized travel distances and reduced overcrowding but also ensured adaptation to changing zoning regulations.

The ML model identified the need to rezone the attendance boundaries to better balance the distribution of students among the existing bus routes. Specifically, it suggested that each of the 5 regular education buses (down from 6 previously) should serve distinct segments of the Frisco HS zone, as shown below. Each bus route now has stops placed at optimal intervals to ensure students have a reasonable walking distance to their nearest stop, reducing the maximum travel distance for any student.
By redistributing the student load across the six buses, each bus now operates at approximately 80-85% capacity, preventing the overcrowding issues previously experienced.

In simulations, the optimized routes also resulted in an average travel time reduction of 14%, ensuring that students spend less time on the bus and more time at home or school. The model also highlighted inefficiencies in the current attendance zoning that were contributing to overcrowding on certain buses and underuse of others. Certain neighborhoods were reassigned to different buses to balance the student load more evenly across the six routes and reduce walking times to and from stops by about 23% while reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 18%.

The model also revealed inefficiencies in the current attendance zoning that were contributing to overcrowding on certain buses and underuse in others. In the proposed maps, certain neighborhoods were reassigned to different buses to balance the student load more evenly across the 5 routes. We're currently working to propose these changes in a pilot program by presenting to FISD transport officials prior to the 26-27 school year.

The new routing plan would lead to a smoother and more predictable transportation system, where students would experience shorter wait times and buses would operate at a balanced capacity, reducing the stress on both drivers and students. Additionally, the safety of the routes would improve, as the buses would no longer make risky maneuvers to accommodate poorly placed stops. We're currently expanding this project for other FISD high schools.