Creating Climate Ready Schools in Missoula County

The EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program (Community Change Grants) is awarding approximately $2 billion in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds in environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. These place-based investments will be focused on community-driven initiatives to be responsive to community and stakeholder input. They are designed to deliver on the transformative potential of the IRA for communities most adversely and disproportionately impacted by climate change, legacy pollution, and historical disinvestments. 

CIS was part of a team led by Climate Resilience Consulting that was awarded a contract to provide technical assistance to Missoula Public Health and their partners, Climate Smart Missoula, Missoula County Public Schools, and Frenchtown School District. Missoula County is increasingly being impacted by extreme heat and poor air quality from wildfire smoke and other air pollutants. Many schools lack central cooling systems and have poor and unfiltered air-ventilation systems, which is unhealthy for students and teachers and interferes with learning. The project explored  building the capacity of three schools – Frenchtown Intermediate School, Russell Elementary School, and Seeley-Swan High School – to serve as resilience hubs, retrofitting school buildings to adapt to wildfire smoke and extreme heat, and greening schoolyards incorporating environmental literacy opportunities for youth. As part of the project, CIS led outreach and engagement with underserved communities, including with local government agencies, school district representatives, community-based organizations, and community members.

The application is focused on three goals: i) healthy learning environments (e.g., improving indoor air quality, air conditioning); ii) safe spaces for play and community gathering (i.e., using schools as resilience hubs); and iii) climate leadership and action across school districts.