It's about child safety

Photo: Darren Handschuh

Concerned parents presented their case for crossing guards at Beirsto Elementary to school board officials Wednesday.

Beairsto District Parent Advisory Council representative Christie Tujik said she feels board officials heard their plea to keep children safe.

Tujik said officials did not make any decision on the request for crossing guards at the school, but she is hopeful it will be on the April meeting agenda.

“I think we were heard. There was no further discussion. They just asked us a few questions and I guess it goes to the agenda planning committee now,” said Tujik, adding she left the meeting feeling positive about the presentation.

As the DPAC representative for Beairsto, Tujik meets regularly with other PACs from area schools and the chairperson of the DPAC sent the board a letter of support for the crossing guard request.

“She said, 'It's our children's safety and we really need to focus on that,'” said Tujik. “I think the board was impressed with the presentation and all the data we had collected. Now it's in their hands.”

The Beairsto PAC gathered mounds of information on the volume of traffic that goes past the school, and have spoken with government agencies and officials about the situation.

Among that information was a survey of more than 150 parents, who overwhelmingly had concerns about child safety.

Tujik said 92.6 per cent of the parents who responded to the survey agreed there should be crossing guards at the school.

“And about 83 per cent of the people who responded stated they would send their children walking to school versus driving them if they knew there were crossing guards.”

Kelly Smith, school district board chairperson, said as per board policy, the matter will be discussed at a future board meeting.

The board does not discuss matters at the same meeting they were presented at and will likely be discussed at the April 25 meeting.

Smith did say the presentation was well researched and “they had really done their homework. This has been a concern for them for a long time. They have gone to virtually every group that would be involved in traffic safety and children.”

Smith said one thing the board suggested was training Grade 7 students to be crossing guard, but parents had concerns that the road was too busy to have students take on the task.

Because the matter has yet to be discussed by the board, Smith said she could not comment on what direction the board may take on the matter.

The PAC also looked into the possibility of slowing traffic along 27th Street in front of the school, but have been told that is not possible.

Amanda Watson, the transportation manager for the city, explained the reasoning in an email to Castanet:

“27th Street is not a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure highway, it is a city road. Previous PAC members have been informed of that and it has been explained that one reason for maintaining the 50 k/ph speed limit is because the traffic signals are co-ordinated to manage traffic flow." 

Watson goes on to write, "Many factors are considered when assigning a road to be a school zone (has 30 kph limit) or a school area (no speed limit reduction) that include the classification of the road, the location of access points (pedestrian and vehicular) and where fencing is installed to name just a few,” said Watson in an email.