Gilroy Unified School District is committed to the safety of all
its students. The Jan.10 Dispatch headline inaccurately implies
that the district alone decided not to apply for a Safe Routes to
School grant.
Gilroy Unified School District is committed to the safety of all its students. The Jan.10 Dispatch headline inaccurately implies that the district alone decided not to apply for a Safe Routes to School grant. The school district works in collaboration with the city, and alone, to promote student pedestrian safety. The district recently identified four additional intersections that need crossings guards; the district employs 11 crossing guards, an increase of two since October. GUSD is the only school district in Santa Clara County that funds school crossing guards. Other districts in the county either do not have crossing guards, or their guards are completely funded by the San Jose Police Department. GUSD also partners with the city to provide safety assemblies for elementary students.
We believe that the Dispatch headline and some of the information in the article are misleading and would like to provide the following information to correct any misunderstandings.
On Oct. 20, CalTrans advertised a Safe Routes to School grant due Jan. 2. There are two kinds of SRTS awards: infrastructure funding for street and sidewalk improvements, and program funding for pedestrian and bicycle safety programs. SRTS is an annual grant funded by state and federal highway funds. The city had investigated SRTS several years ago, created a Safe Routes map, but did not apply for a grant. That map is now obsolete.
GUSD approached city of Gilroy traffic engineer Don Dey in late October about collaborating to seek funds to improve pedestrian safety through street and sidewalk improvements, and new public education programs. As noted in the Dispatch, the ratio of SRTS infrastructure awards to program awards is 70/30; however, an online list of 2005-2006 SRTS awards lists 90 infrastructure awards and not a single program-only award. We were advised that a program application had little chance of selection for funding without an accompanying infrastructure application.
GUSD representatives scheduled a November meeting with an engineer from Fehr and Peers, a firm that writes successful SRTS applications. We discussed the SRTS process and identified priorities for a potential city and school district SRTS grant application.
Don Dey identified SRTS as the city’s top priority and the engineering consultant estimated a $5,000 per school cost for developing a current safe routes map. GUSD shared recommendations for infrastructure and program ideas gathered from parents and staff.
The district agreed to support the city’s SRTS efforts and not to compete with them for available funding. CalTrans contacted the city of Gilroy to encourage its application for SRTS and indicated that Gilroy would be given high priority. Also, CalTrans recommended that the city submit two funding applications under its federal highways number, one for infrastructure from the city, and one for programs from the school district and police department.
The city engineer’s task at the end of this meeting was to get official approval to pursue the SRTS grant as the lead agency, and to research infrastructure needs that could be funded with SRTS. Gilroy already has a sidewalk gaps study that could be included in an infrastructure application, but the street and traffic survey components would need to be done. The school district agreed to research successful SRTS grants and obtain examples of existing programs for the next partnership meeting.
In GUSD’s research, the Fehr and Peers’ engineer reported that there was insufficient time this year to survey every school’s traffic and pedestrian needs in time for the funding deadline (Jan. 2), but that the city and district might select one or two school neighborhoods for this application. She sent an example of a successful application from Elk Grove. However, the school district learned in early December that the city would not pursue the SRTS infrastructure grant due to other high-priority engineering time commitments. Safety programs depend upon the existence of safe walking routes, which are not the district’s jurisdiction.
While GUSD was disappointed that applying for SRTS this year was not possible, we continue to plan for the next grant cycle. Our new district Wellness Plan supports major SRTS program criteria, such as increasing the numbers of children walking and bicycling to school.
Gilroy Unified will gather ideas from parents, police, and community members for new safety education programs. We hope the city will prioritize the necessary infrastructure studies, which must be completed to make a complete pedestrian safety program possible. With both agencies’ commitment, the exploratory work done this year will give us a head start and help to ensure Safe Routes to School for our community.
Guest columnist Edwin Diaz is the superintendent of the Gilroy Unified School District.
