Submitted by Cindy Orton Littleton
Troop 256 embraced the Breathe Journey and addressed the Jefferson County and Douglas County School Boards regarding diesel emissions from idling school buses.
The girls spent two months gathering data on the habits of school bus drivers who drop students off at their schools. What they found was that several buses idled for more than three minutes in front of the school buildings, exposing students, parents and school employees to harmful diesel emissions.
They made a recommendation of enforcing a policy that allows buses to idle for only one minute or less in front of a school.
“By reducing the idling time to less than a minute, the districts could see a minimum of $230 in fuel savings per school per year.: Both the Jeffco and the Dougco boards received the public comment from the girls with interest and promised to further investigate the practices of their school bus drivers.
Furthermore, the girls were approached by several officials of Jefferson County to continue a project and possibly help with writing policy next year.