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M I N U T E S Safe Routes to School Committee Meeting March 19, 2013 3:30 P.M. The Safe Routes to School Committee met during a regular meeting on March 19, 2013 at 3:30 p.m. at McKinley Elementary School, 1201 North Butler, Farmington, New Mexico. Present: Coordinator: Anngela Wakan Committee Joe Delmagori Members June Markle Steve Krest Principal Marilee Dexel Officer Lisa McGaha Committee Absent: Sergeant Dave Monfils Duane Wakan Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. by Anngela Wakan and the following proceedings were duly had and taken. Mrs. Wakan asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the February 12, 2013 meeting. Mr. Krest moved to approve the minutes and Mr. Delmagori seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously. REPORTS FROM PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS McKinley Mrs. Wakan and Principal Dexel said that Sergeant Monfils had not contacted McKinley regarding the training for the student crossing guards. Mrs. Wakan will check with Sergeant Monfils to see where he is at with this training. Principal Dexel said that some teachers had expressed concern about using students alone as crossing guards. Mrs. Wakan said that a teacher could be assigned to assist, but Principal Dexel said there was no one available for this. Mrs. Wakan suggested having a police officer work with the students for the first week to make sure they were comfortable in the position and also to ensure the motorists were attentive to the student crossing guards. Mrs. Dexel thought this was a good idea to try. Mrs. Wakan and Principal Dexel discussed having Mrs. Wakan teach pedestrian safety to McKinley Elementary students. Mrs. Wakan explained that she had just finished up a series of classes for Mesa Verde students. ---PAGE BREAK--- Mrs. Wakan said the classes were for 25 minutes each and were taught by grade level. She gave an overview to the students of the “walk” and “don’t walk” signs, street lights, how to look both ways before crossing a street, and how to watch out for drivers. Using students as drivers, pedestrians, and crossing guards, Mrs. Wakan had the students act out different scenes involving pedestrian safety. The 5th grade students practiced what they had learned by playing an interactive game and seeing which group could provide the most correct answers. Mrs. Wakan also brought along a dented bike helmet to include some bicycle safety in the presentation. All the students had a good time, learned a lot about pedestrian safety and were each rewarded with a pencil and bookmark. Mrs. Wakan asked Principal Dexel if she would like to have this pedestrian safety made available to McKinley students. They discussed when the best times would be to make these presentations. Mrs. Wakan suggested doing three grades on a Tuesday and the remaining three grades on Thursday. Principal Dexel agreed and said that the first week or so of April would be a good time. Ladera Mrs. Wakan plans to teach the pedestrian safety class to students at Ladera. Ladera also had some interest in training students to act as crossing guards on 38th Street. Mrs. Wakan will follow up with Sergeant Monfils on providing training for those students who might be interested. Apache Mrs. Wakan will contact Principal Braff to see is Apache Elementary is interested in having Mrs. Wakan teach the pedestrian safety class to students there. Mesa Verde As discussed earlier in the meeting, Mrs. Wakan taught pedestrian safety to Mesa Verde students. Mrs. Wakan said the bike rodeo is still being planned for Mesa Verde on May 3 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. She said approximately ten volunteers would be needed for the event. Each volunteer would have a station and talking point about bicycle safety. Mr. Krest and Mr. Delmagori agreed to help out for this event. The teaching material is available through the SRTS website and will be provided to each instructor by Mrs. Wakan. Mrs. Wakan hopes to possibly be able to partner with Cottonwood Cycles so that actual bike repairs can be made during the rodeo. Principal Dexel suggested asking the Mesa Verde PTO for some financial assistance for the rodeo. Mrs. Wakan said that this rodeo would be for Mesa Verde students only and at the April meeting will make assignments. She would like to consider hosting a community-wide bike rodeo in the fall. The group discussed hosting a larger community-wide event in the fall at the Sycamore Center. Mrs. Wakan said that Conoco-Phillips partners with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to do two school bike rodeos a year. She will speak with them more about the organization ---PAGE BREAK--- of these rodeos. The group suggested contacting other larger companies in the area who might be willing to sponsor a community-wide bike rodeo. ENGINEERING Mr. Krest stated that he has been working with the Farmington School District to devise a new student drop off zone for Country Club Elementary. Mr. Krest reported that SRTS had been awarded another $250,000 in infrastructure funding. Part of that money will be to install sidewalks on the east side of Hutton Avenue from Animas Elementary School to Cliffside, and for McCormick Elementary on Hydro Plant Road from Ivie Avenue to McCormick School Road. Mr. Krest also said that his department will soon begin their spring painting which will include crosswalks. ENFORCEMENT Sgt. Monfils was not present at the meeting. Officer McGaha spoke on Safety Days which is scheduled for April 1-5, 2013. This week-long event provides a series of safety classes for 1st and 2nd graders taught by the Police Department SROs. Mrs. Wakan added that SRTS does want to be involved this year and said she would contact the SRO Lead Coordinator Michele Delese to see about including some pedestrian safety classes as part of the activities for Safety Days. EVALUATION Mr. Delmagori said the spring student arrival counts have been scheduled for April 9, 10 and 11 at McKinley and Apache and at Mesa Verde and Ladera on April 23, 24, and 25. He said McKinley and Ladera need five volunteers each while Mesa Verde and Apache can handle the counts with three. Along with five volunteers from the City of Farmington and Mrs. Wakan, two additional volunteers will still be needed. Mrs. Wakan said Jeff Treat might be able to volunteer at Mesa Verde. Mr. Delmagori will send out assignments in the next week. The student population data is not yet available from the school district. They are still working to update their database. Once the information can be provided, the MPO Staff will design maps to show where elementary school students reside and their walking distance to their school. This information will then assist in developing a walking school bus program. EDUCATION Mrs. Wakan said the International Bike to School Day is Wednesday, May 8, 2013 (website is: She would like to promote this event by sending a flyer directly to the homes of those students who are within walking distance of each of the SRTS schools. Principal Dexel said Mrs. Wakan could obtain that information for McKinley from her office. Mrs. Wakan would like to have all the school buses for the SRTS schools stop at a location nearby to the school and have the students walk to school from there. She ---PAGE BREAK--- noted that in the past some schools had students walk around their track or playground, but she would like to see every student actually walk or bike to school that day. She will speak with Mr. Billy Huish with Farmington Schools to see if the buses can let the students off at an off-school site that day to allow students to walk. Some of the possible off-site locations were: - Mesa Verde – San Juan College parking lot - McKinley – Methodist Church south on Butler or Wells Fargo/United Blood Services on Monterey & 20th - Apache – LDS Church on Auburn or Tibbetts Middle School - Ladera – none mentioned Flyers would be sent out to parents/guardians beforehand to alert them to the event. Mrs. Wakan suggested possibly giving each student who walks that day a bike reflector or other award. She would like for volunteers to be at the schools handing out the rewards. She asked if a poster contest might be a good way to promote the International Walk/Bike to School Day among the students and the schools. Mrs. Wakan also asked the group about a raffle for swim passes or movie passes to help promote the event. Mrs. Wakan also suggested having a mascot for each school to walk along with the students. The group commented that the City’s Parks Department has “Ringo”, the Police Department has an eagle costume that Officer Jemmett has worn for events, and everyone thought the Fire Department had a mascot as well but were not sure what it was. Piedra Vista has a panther mascot and Farmington High has a scorpion mascot. Having the school mascots and possibly other high school students participate in walking the younger students to school was thought to be a good idea. Mrs. Wakan would also like to get a proclamation signed by the Mayor designating May 8, 2013 as International Walk/Bike to School Day for Farmington. She will speak with Elizabeth Isenberg about getting this implemented. Promoting SRTS Mrs. Wakan showed some samples of advertising ideas for SRTS that were developed by the media specialist. The selected idea(s) will be used to promote SRTS in the community and help generate local support and interest. The chosen pictures will be made into the size of a book mark or a baseball card and distributed to the schools. Mrs. Wakan said that SRTS will be on the City of Farmington’s new website and this web address will be added to the advertising before anything is printed. Mrs. Wakan asked for other suggestions to get the word out about SRTS. Some of the ideas were: • Yard signs • Bumper sticker/decal • McKinley’s “Wednesday Note” to students (sent every other Wednesday) • School newsletters • Mass e-mail • Post information on each school’s website Information on the new SRTS website will be included on any of the promotional ideas selected. ---PAGE BREAK--- The group also commented that the Walk & Roll banner in front of McKinley needed to be replaced. The Walk Across America Challenge was briefly discussed. Mrs. Wakan asked who should be responsible for tracking and logging students’ steps. The group agreed that a PE teacher or other faculty should be the one to track student progress. The group also agreed that prizes should be award at the conclusion of the Challenge and thought the swim party used previously had been well received by the students. SRTS Goals Listed below are some other goals Mrs. Wakan has for the SRTS program. Not every goal was discussed at this meeting. • Revisit the Action Plan for each school. Mr. Delmagori said the summer months provided a good opportunity to discuss each of the schools’ action plans. Mr. Krest stated he needed to submit a progress report to the State SRTS Program Director. Mrs. Wakan also noted that the State SRTS Program requires the completion of a survey once a year. She will find out the details for getting this completed. • Walking School Bus - one for each school. Mrs. Wakan mentioned that from the training she completed, it was recommended to take upwards of one year to prepare the foundation and to really get a good set-up for the program before actually implementing the WSB program. Right now SRTS needs to share the information and then decide how large we can/want to build a WSB program one route at one school or at four schools). • Contact other school’s PTO’s to share SRTS and encourage parental participation. • Compile a map showing where each elementary school family within walking distance of the school is located. The April meeting is scheduled for April 9 at 3:30 p.m. at Mesa Verde Elementary. Mrs. Wakan adjourned the meeting at 4:30 p.m.