District Administration - February 2009 - (Page 37)

Students in the Liberty City Elementary School in Miami walk to school as part of a safe-routes-to-school program. the number of students who live nearby. “Over the last seven years, we’ve been able to reduce the number of buses by 20 percent, even as the district has been growing 5 to 7 percent annually, opening a new school every other year,” Denton says. And Auburn has saved $220,000 to date districtwide through the SRTS program. Part of Auburn’s strategy has been to help parents get comfortable letting their young children walk to school, including a “walking school bus” program at some schools, where parent volunteers take turns leading a gaggle of kids down specific routes at scheduled times, just like a bus. Nationally, walking school bus programs are becoming increasingly popular, in part because they allow even the youngest student to walk to school safely. At the Wake County (N.C.) Public School System, parents meet at six departure points to take pupils to Olive Chapel Elementary School in Apex, and one route has as many as 200 people who regularly walk. In the Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento, Calif., the families in the Natomas Park Elementary School register children in advance to participate, and every parent has a background check and training to ensure proper safety for walking students. A Safer, Healthier Route Safety is the underlying issue in getting kids to and from school. The American School Bus Council points to federal data that shows students are 13 times safer in a school bus than in other modes of travel. It’s no coincidence that walking campaigns and funding make child safety the first order of business. “The first time [walking was promoted], parents were not excited,” says Andrea Fletcher, principal at Hillrise Elementary School in the Las www.DistrictAdministration.com Cruces (N.M.) Public School District. “They were very worried that kids would get kidnapped. But statistically, stranger kidnapping is not something to be concerned about.” To encourage walking, the school brought in a speaker to talk to its 510 students about how to be safe on the streets. The school also holds regular bicycle rodeos to teach proper signals and other skills. Today about a third of its students regularly walk to school, up from 8 percent before the program began, and many are walking up to mile a day. “It’s an opportunity for families to walk together and see each other,” Fletcher says. Whether it’s lowering the number of cars around school at drop-off and pickup times, or reducing the number of buses, there are benefits for safe-routes-to-school programs. Denton says that fighting childhood obesity was part of the goal for the Auburn district’s program, and some schools even incorporate the walk into the school day, from using distance and miles as a real-life example for word problems in math class to having healthy snacks in the cafeteria for walkers when they arrive in the morning. And at Hillrise, the impact has captured the students’ imaginations. “They’re aware of how their actions affect things globally, and they’re dying to do something like this,” Fletcher says. “But they need a reason and a way to get involved.” DA Carl Vogel is a freelance writer in Chicago. ResouRces The American School Bus Council americanschoolbuscouncil.org Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s KidsWalk-to-School program cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/index .htm National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services www.nasdpts.org National Center for Safe Routes to School www.saferoutesinfo.org TransPar www.transpar.com February 2009 37 http://www.elitescreens.com http://www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/index.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/index.htm http://www.nasdpts.org http://www.saferoutesinfo.org http://www.elitescreens.com http://www.transpar.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2009

District Administration - February 2009 Contents Advertiser Index Editor's Letter News Update Security Curriculum Crisis Response Supervisor's Opinion The Rise of the Virtual Teacher Speaking Their Language Alternate Transportation Routes Opinion The Aftermath of the New 403(b) Regulations How Well Does This Web Site Work? Problem Solution New Products Product Focus Professional Opinion

District Administration - February 2009

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