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It’s no secret that climate change is already affecting the world. This past week alone, news headlines across the country have focused on the strong possibility of the “Super El Niño”, which has been forming in the Pacific Ocean, bringing even more extreme heat, flooding and wildfires in certain areas.
A group of high school students asked the Pleasanton Unified School District last month to pass a “Advancing Climate Resilience through Climate Literacy” resolution, which the board unanimously approved, that would affirm the the importance of teaching students about the causes and impacts of climate change and the actions needed to address it.
“You have now done something that few people have,” Trustee Charlie Jones said during the May 26 board meeting. “Not only giving a presentation in front of us, but enacting policy change that will last long past when you graduate from here and will impact other students. That is something to celebrate. That is something many people try to do but aren’t always able to do.”
Back in 2024, Pareena Gupta – now a rising senior at Amador Valley High School – and Aurora Nicolas, who recently graduated from the same school, began looking into climate change literacy while interning with Quest Science Center in Livermore.
During their internship, the two learned how the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District passed a resolution and commitment to climate literacy, which made them want to do something similar in Pleasanton.
The two teenagers began by working with mentors from the Quest Science Center to assess what students’ knew about climate change by conducting a survey at both Amador Valley and Foothill High School.
According to the students, who presented this information and more during the May 26 school board meeting, the responses from 540 students showed that “75% did not feel confident in their climate knowledge, while 90% supported incorporating climate literacy into the school curriculum.”
After they conducted the survey, the two students shared their findings with the school district in late 2025 and began working with people at the district like Sarah Knox, PUSD coordinator of assessment and instruction, to develop a resolution that would help introduce climate topics when new curriculum is created in order to avoid any burden on teachers or the district’s budget.
The students then presented their findings to the school board in January and, after expanding their group to include representatives from Foothill, presented their proposal to the school board’s Board Curriculum & Instruction Committee, which gave the group the green light to form the Climate Literacy Integration Committee, which would “guide the integration of climate concepts into the school curriculum”.
All of that work over the past two years finally materialized into a resolution that the board has since approved at the May 26 meeting. Now that the resolution is adopted the Climate Literacy Integration Committee, which already met in April, will continue supporting the integration of the “climate-related concepts” across PUSD anytime a new curriculum is introduced.
“Aligning directly with our district’s mission to foster resourceful, resilient, and globally engaged citizens, this resolution strengthens PUSD’s commitment to expanding student climate literacy beyond science classes and across subject areas,” Knox told the Board of Trustees. “It celebrates the ongoing work of the recently established, student-led climate literacy steering committee, ensuring our students are thoroughly prepared to safely navigate our changing world and thrive in the future workforce.”
Both students and trustees acknowledged the fact that the resolution aligns the district with California Assembly Bill 285 which, according to the California Department of Education, requires “instruction in climate change for grades one to twelve”. It also aligns with the city’s Climate Action Plan.
“One way to relieve climate anxiety is by empowering students to take action through the resolution process,” Vaughn Draggoo, founding board member and mentor at Quest Science Center, said during the meeting. “What these students accomplished will enable PUSD students to learn about climate change and be prepared to navigate the climate issues that will be a big part of their lives, no matter what field or career they choose.”
Gupta also took a moment to reflect on the entire process and what it took to get the resolution passed so that students can be prepared for any future career influenced by climate change.
“Through this process, I learned that passion alone does not drive policy forward and that collaborative problem-solving and building coalitions are essential for meaningful impact,” Gupta said. “For student-led initiatives, advocating for change is not enough; it is equally important to understand and work within existing systems and alongside those who lead them.”
