The discarding of books at FPS

 

As many of our readers know, I was a volunteer at Dunning for the compost pilot program for most of the last school year. My job was to ensure that foreign items that are not compostable were not thrown in the compost bin. Items like plastic ware, labels, plastic of any kind, etc. Only food items went into the bin that was collected twice a week from Dunning via Black Earth. 

While at the school I would check the recycle bins to see what if any non-recyclable items were in there and notify anyone, I could find to let them know. On my last day of the school year, I happened upon two recycle carts that were full to the top with hard cover books. I estimate there were 100 or so books in each bin, two hundred in total. I looked at a few of the books and found them to be in good condition.

Knowing full well that books of any kind are not to be thrown in the recycle carts because…. They are not recyclable. The only way to recycle them is at the recycle center in large book bins. So, I volunteered to take the books to the recycle center. I had no idea what a hornet’s nest I disturbed. I was told that the facilities department would take care of the books. I immediately asked why the books are not being donated and that opened another can of worms with the front office. Come to find out, the school has a policy for retiring unwanted or unusable or out dated or broken items since they are assets of the city and paid for through tax dollars somewhere. The I find out that our CFO Ms. Pratt has a list of all the assets that were donated, given away or trashed. I asked her for the report and wouldn’t you know, three days later I get a 5-page report of all the assets FPS has listed as being written off over the past 4 years. Stuck into one page with a date days after I made the inquiry is a listing naming various books. Asking the FPS CFO what happened to the books that I saw in the bins, his latest reply was their looking at a company that will take them. In an email to him, I suggested asking the kids at the school if they wanted any of the books to take home. I also suggested donating some of the books to our two libraries’, non-profits like SMOC, Salvation Army and for-profits like Savers.

I recently found out from former teachers that it is a common practice to purge books from the schools at the end of the school year. I asked superintendent Bob Tremblay if he knew about this and he said in his eight years at FPS he had never even heard of the practice. So at this point, I have no idea if this practice will continue or not, but it seems so wasteful.I may have to wait till end of school next year to find out.