North Vancouver Teachers Weren’t Informed And Aren’t Impressed By New Partnership With Chevron

From now until November 30, if parents and teachers want to support Lower Mainland schools, all they need to do is fuel up at Chevron gas stations within their district.

As part of a program called Fuel Your Schools, for every 30 litres of gas purchased, Chevron donates $1 to participating school districts. The program has been in effect in North Vancouver since May when the Board of Trustees decided to opt in. Chevron has ads up in its gas stations informing drivers of the program.

North Van was the fifth district in B.C. to join the program, joining West Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam. If the fundraising goal is reached — a total of $565,000 to be split between the five districts — B.C. drivers will have purchased just under 17 million litres of gas.

In spite of the incentive to buy more gas and to buy it from Chevron — the company behind the proposed Pacific Trail pipeline that would carry one billion cubic feet of natural gas from Summit Lake to Kitimat — Victoria Miles, spokesperson for the North Vancouver School District (NVSD), told DeSmog that the district believes a relationship with Chevron “in no way impedes” its sustainability mandate.

“When it comes to energy use, we want to ensure that we are using less and creating greater efficiencies in all of our operations. Sustainability in all areas of our operations is a goal we are actively working to realize as part of our 10-year strategic lan," she said via e-mail.

The program is a collaboration between Chevron and My Class Needs, a non-profit organization that crowdsources money for schools to fund projects. The funding prioritizes STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) projects and teachers have the option of applying for funding for particular programs or projects. Teachers report back on how the funds are used.

Miles was also quick to point out that Chevron isn’t permitted to advertise in classrooms and supplies purchased through the program won’t be branded. However, presentations given to children in Surrey classrooms featured Chevron advertising materials.

A presentation given at Bear Creek Elementary School features Chevron Fuel Your Schools material. Source: Surrey604.com

“We recognize the funding source is an act of corporate social responsibility that the company does not have to engage in with a portion of their profits. The company offers their support to public education, as an option for teachers who might value supplementary funding for a resource that can enhance their educational practice and classroom engagement,” she said via e-mail. 

Students and school faculty in Orange County, California, pose with Chevron advertising materials. Source: Irvine News Blog.

Carolyn Pena, president of the North Vancouver Teachers Association (NVTA), is skeptical about the promise to keep branding out of school. After learning of the program, she saw a promotional video made by teachers in the Surrey district that featured Chevron Fuel Your School posters as well as the program's cartoon car logo.

“That's what we’ve seen of the program, so it just makes us wonder,” she said

Pena only found out about the program when teachers who were sent information about it contacted her to express their concerns.

“We weren’t consulted at all. Not only were we not consulted, we didn’t even know the decision was taking place in order to provied any feedback whatsoever."

"We didn’t know for months afterward,” she said.

While Chevron claims that parents were not told about the program and have in no way been pushed to buy gas from Chevron, Pena said it puts teachers in the difficult position of potentially having to explain the program to students while also teaching about environmental responsibility.

“Fundamentally, what we need is a level of public education funding that allows schools to function without the need for corporate donation. This undermines the call for adequate public funding.”

The Vancouver School District has refused to be part of the program on the grounds that Chevron’s partnership with My Class Needs, which has oversight over fundraising projects, amounts to corporate influence on curriculum. With municpal elections coming up on Nov. 15th, the issue is a contentious one both for the mayoral race and school board trustee elections.

The North Vancouver Teachers Association has passed a non-binding motion asking teachers not to participate in the program.

David Lavallee is one of the many teachers in the North Vancouver School District with serious concerns about the program. As a teacher on call, he could be requested to teach in a variety of schools, all of which might participate in the program differently.

When it comes to the messaging of oil companies like Chevron, Lavallee has done his homework. A documentary filmmaker when he’s not in the classroom, Lavallee is the creator of White Water Black Gold, a film about water use in the Alberta oilsands.

With a Master’s degree in psychology, Lavalee formerly researched child development and how children respond to advertising and corporate messaging. Logos or no logos, he believes Chevron has no business in public schools.

“Climate change is on the news all the time. I remember as kid myself listening to stuff on the news and trying to make sense of it and not having the tools to make sense of it.”

Lavallee says he has even seen adults struggle to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the oil and gas industry. And in spite of years of exposure to the tactics multinational corporations use to keep the oil flowing, he said he still sometimes runs into confusion himself.

“It’s too much for kids,” he said. “I believe the classroom should be a sacred space where kids don’t have to face advertising of any kind.”

Image Credit: A Chevron representative speaks to children in a California elementary school. Photo from Richmond Confidential, a University of Berkley journalism website.