After months of meetings with the CPS board, Sunrise Movement has finally achieved their goal of getting their Electrification and Renewable Energy Resolution passed.

“CPS is now required to, at the minimum, consider renewable energy next time they make a power purchase agreement or get new appliances,” Sophie Krumm, ‘25, Sunrise Movement co-president, said. “But what we’re going to push for next year is that they go for 100%. We understand that it’s not always possible, especially since it can be more expensive.”

Sunrise movement met with the board on March 18, presenting final arguments for the resolution. As a result of several announcements and posters across campus, the movement had multiple supporters cheering them on in the audience.

“We’ve been able to get not only students but a lot of concerned parents [to attend], and at the last board meeting we got council members from the city which was pretty cool,” Krumm said. “It’s really nice to see people  come up and tell us, ‘This is a really good cause’ or ‘Thank you for doing this.’”

While they were fairly certain that the resolution would get passed, there were some doubts. However, nothing could deter the Sunrise movement from achieving its goal.

“It would have been unfortunate [if the resolution did not pass], but I think the board knows that,” Krumm said. “If they didn’t pass it, we would be back and keep on fighting for it.”

With the resolution passed, Sunrise Movement now prepares for its next steps in gaining support both at the political and school level.

“That’s the focus of our elementary school conversations because we want to get not just older students, [but] younger students, and we want to get their parents [too],” Krumm said. “We want to tell parents we’re doing this and continue to make morning announcements and [participate in] Earth Jam, where we hope to have a little poster board about it so other students know.”

As always, the Sunrise movement encourages student support over adults in their mission to convert the district to renewable energy.

“When Chris, our adult sponsor from the Citizens Climate Lobby, tried to do this exact same process years ago, he was just with other parents,” Krumm said. “One of the administrators told Chris that this is a good idea, but it’s not going to work unless there are students because this is an intergenerational issue and the board members want to know that students are concerned. So we want to be there to show the board members that it is actually our concern, not just our parents.”