Adminstrators Fail To Provide Traffic Safety Measures at New Brooklyn Elementary
Brooklyn Elementary school administrators along with Comox Valley School District 71 officials are forcing the hands of parents, Town of Comox officials, Fire and RCMP authorities after a lack of planning on the part of SD 71 related to traffic safety at the new Brooklyn Elementary site has caused serious concerns about the safety of students.
The severe weather that marked the first day of school combining the current grade 4-7 student population with the K-3 students from the old Brooklyn site on Noel Avenue revealed that administrators had made a potentially life-threatening oversight in terms of traffic safety. A significant lack of parking left parents and students to fend for themselves, having to park illegally along Guthrie Road, crossing fast-moving traffic without the aid of crosswalks, school district supervision or guards to provide necessary safety in order to help their young children to get to their new space at the former Cape Lazo Middle School.
While administrators have long known that the Brooklyn population would increase by roughly 50% and there were already traffic safety concerns at the site, conceptual plans for modifications that would accommodate the increased traffic were not presented to the Town of Comox until just six weeks before the December 2011 holiday break by an SD 71 Director of Operations who knew he would be leaving at the end of 2011.
This comes on the heels of similar safety issues being raised at the high-traffic Ecole Robb Road and Mark Isfeld Secondary sites where the School District has demanded action from municipalities and RCMP officials instead of making the necessary modifications and hiring staff to ensure the safety of its students and families.
In an e-mail addressed to Brooklyn Elementary parents sent out Wednesday evening, co-principals Paul Berry and Sherry Kennedy deflected blame for traffic congestion at the new site by claiming that the Town of Comox and other agencies refused to cooperate in providing safety-related services at the school.
“From the beginning of our transition process, concerns for student safety were paramount. Both Senior District Staff and your Parent Advisory Council initiated dialogue with the Town of Comox regarding Guthrie Avenue almost two years ago. At the time we were told that Guthrie and the increased traffic resulting from our unification would be considered and addressed,” the e-mail stated. “Your PAC made very specific recommendations to the Town of Comox. To date none of the recommendations have been addressed.”
Comox Mayor Paul Ives and Town of Comox Chief Administrative Officer Richard Kanigan were contacted by me immediately following parents receiving the e-mail and began a consultation with town staff to see what, if anything, had been presented to the Town of Comox by SD 71 or the PAC. The following was Kanigan’s response:
(Former School District Director of Operations) David Barnes met with the Public Works Superintendent several months ago about a host of issues. He did mention at that time that they (SD-71) were in the process of selecting an Engineering firm to review the construction of additional on-site parking for Lazo (a.k.a Brooklyn). He did ask if the Town had any plans to expand the width of Guthrie fronting this school, and whether these plans could be modified to include “drop-off zones” . The answer to both these questions is no. There is insufficient right-of-way to create one or two lanes for parking.
As it stands, we only have sufficient room to complete the sidewalk on the opposite side to the school, a project that is no-where in our capital plan. It should also be noted that Guthrie Road is not at its ultimate design grade, thus any introduction of sidewalk in the area of Torrence Road, will necessitate regrading/rebuilding of a good portion of this alignment.
In summary:
- Staff have not seen any “traffic” or “impact” assessment now or in the past two years regarding the effects of moving Brooklyn to this school
- The Town’s Capital Plan does not identify any funds or projects to make improvements to Guthrie
- The only PAC concerns ever raised regarded the pedestrian crossing at Torrence and Guthrie. Recommendations by our Traffic Study involved minor improvements to the signage and sidewalk layout, both of which have been completed.
- Boulevard (Traffic Study consultant) did suggest the introduction of pedestrian beacons at this cross walk would be appropriate if Brooklyn was to be moved to Cape Lazo. We can certainly do this, but it would achieve nothing toward the complaints or concerns now being raised over the circumstances fronting Lazo School itself.
There has been no application to the Town of Comox by SD 71 to obtain permits or move forward with improvements to ease the traffic congestion at the school. Consultation with the Town of Comox didn’t begin until November 9, 2011.
Berry was contacted by Town officials Thursday and sent out an e-mail to Brooklyn Elementary parents that evening retracting his previous comments regarding the Town of Comox.
“Let us apologize if we suggested in our previous letter that all the solutions to traffic concerns rests with the Town of Comox. This was not our intent,” Berry stated in the e-mail. “Certainly, Sherry (Kennedy) and I hold the responsibility for student safety at Brooklyn School and the School District is responsible for ensuring adequate and safe facilities, including traffic flow on our school grounds. Many of the concerns brought forward to us over the past few days were with respect to the volume and speed of traffic on Guthrie, inadequate warning signage, and safe areas for children to cross the streets. These concerns are out of the domain of the School District and should rightly be directly to police and municipal authorities.”
While Berry continues to assert that parking and safety along Guthrie Road is not a School District responsibility, the Town of Comox and RCMP traffic constables substantially disagree stating that they were never consulted, requests for signage, enforcement or cross walks were never made and that the School District, in the end, has failed to make the safety of its students and families primary at this site.
“The school district has refused to make any changes and has got to before a child gets killed,” said RCMP Constable Kevin Kimler in a conversation on Thursday. “They have never talked to us about traffic support and we literally cannot be out there to provide that.”
Kimler’s traffic unit has two full-time officers that serve the entire Comox Valley. Because of significant complaints from parents related to the Brooklyn site, his team was forced Thursday to issue warning tickets to parents parking in bike lanes on either side of Guthrie. Kimler said that if the complaints continue they will be forced to ticket and tow cars parked on either side of the road due to liability concerns from the RCMP perspective. That takes his officers away from major traffic accidents, hazardous intersections and other schools where the district has also not addressed major traffic safety issues including Robb Road and Isfeld, he said.
Towing means people will stop parking there. But, he said, this does not in any way alleviate the traffic safety concerns related to the site and does not provide parents with viable and realistic options to get their kids to their classrooms safely, with the support of a parent or guardian who can address their child’s personal needs, safety and concerns.
“This begins with the school district and an unwillingness to provide for the safety of these kids,” Constable Kimler said. It has never been the domain of RCMP to run or fund traffic control measures in and around school zones beyond regular scheduled enforcement. It has always been the responsibility of the School District.
The Town of Comox, as well, is not responsible for traffic and infrastructure-related issues created by the School District as a result of consolidation or expansion. “It is perhaps most troubling to see Mr. Berry asking parents to lobby the Town for improvements when clearly it is the School District’s own responsibility to address,” said Comox Mayor Paul Ives in an e-mail conversation. In his original e-mail, Berry told parents to contact the Town of Comox to voice their concerns.
Berry asserts that Brooklyn administrators and SD 71 officials are only responsible for traffic from the time a car turns off of Guthrie and into the lot at Brooklyn Elementary. Yet, SD 71 has not provided parents with adequate alternative parking. They have also created potential safety concerns as it relates to the ability for emergency vehicles to enter the parking lot in the event of a larger emergency.
Meanwhile, Berry also asserts that it should be the parents, government and law enforcement who are now responsible for addressing the traffic safety concerns. Administrators recommended early Thursday parking on already congested residential Torrence Road and Ridgemount Drive and walking the children 800 or so meters into school. Other recommendations include walking, carpooling or biking – again, unrealistic in bad weather – using a pledge to ease the burden on the environment as a mechanism to get parents to resolve the traffic issues.
New School District Director of Operations Ian Heselgrave, former manager of operations at the Comox Airport, was contacted on Thursday regarding plans for traffic management at Brooklyn and said that he was not up to speed on the current status of the project, having only been on the job since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, parents are receiving a barrage of conflicting information, having never been informed that it was illegal to park along Guthrie Road. Indeed, parents were not informed of parking, drop-off or pick-up options until less than 15 hours before Tuesday’s school start when an e-mail was sent at 5:30 p.m. Monday. It recommended parents simply drop their children off at the front door or they use the lot, with roughly 30 parking spaces, to park and enter the building. Parents of K-3 students had long parked along both sides of Noel Avenue at the old Brooklyn site and were actively involved in the hands-on drop-off and pick-up of their young children. When they arrived in the pouring rain Tuesday morning to a packed parking lot, they simply parked along the roadway, had to make do and cross the road.
When an e-mail was sent out lambasting parents for making the best in a situation where they weren’t given any options, they reacted by inundating the RCMP and Town of Comox with complaints.
As late as Thursday night, parents were receiving updates that previous recommendations made by administrators for alternatives to parking along Guthrie were just as dangerous, if not more so. It revealed that they were simply shooting from the hip without knowing what the Brooklyn site and the neighborhood around it could realistically accommodate.
“As this (Ridgemount Drive) is a residential street the increase in traffic represents a significant risk to our children walking to school. There are few lots that have parking adjacent to them and the street is not set up for drop off and U-turns which would occur,” the e-mail, sent at 7:30 p.m., stated. “Ridgemount is not within the “school zone” area and encouraging parents to drop off in this area will involve unsafe speeds much greater than 30km/h (as this is a 50km/h zone with speeds in excess of this). In addition the crosswalk from Ridgemount across Guthrie is not set up with flashing lights and so far this week we have witnessed excess speed across the crosswalk, failure to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk and parking on the crosswalk itself.”
This issue will be addressed at the Brooklyn Elementary PAC meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9 at the new Brooklyn site. Expected to be added to their agenda as well, the SD 71 Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. Jan. 24 in the School Board Office Board Room, 607 Cumberland Road in Courtenay.
You can contact the Brooklyn Elementary administrators through school secretary Kathleen Bell at [email protected]
Category: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
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Robin Rivers is Our Big Earth’s Publisher and Sr. Partner. Able to survive on coffee alone. Often can be found leaping tall buildings with the help of great friends. Predisposed to odd hats and the color orange. In love with imagination, her kids and that crazy guy who married her.Subscribe
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That particular group of power-hungry (in a very small pool, to cross metaphors) administrators for this School District who decided that Lazo should be Brooklyn and are fools. As are the people that designed and PAID for Cape Lazo in the first place. Most idiots can see there is no parking and certainly no room for expansion at any time. Bulldozing Brooklyn and rebuilding there would make more sense but my guess is the land will fetch a lot of money for some residential development.
Twerps with power issues and apathy in the public who let them get away with it.
Yes, my posting is somewhat juvenile in tone but that is how this School District makes me feel.
Robin, hope you and Ms. M continue to get to school in one piece!
A temporary solution might be to tell your teacher and your principal that you will bring your child late to school so that you can access the parking and feel that your child is safe at drop off. Let them know, as well as write a letter to your School Trustee letting them know as well, that you will continue this until the situation is resolved.
Won’t work for everyone, but might get the point across.
And please try to be kind to Ms Bell… she is a little bit of awesome dipped in awesome sauce (and she has no power to change the situation anyway).
Robin, I appreciate your sentinment.
Thanks Stacey for the alternative ideas. I agree about Ms. Bell. She is amazing and being put in the awful position of having to field concerns.
Why are these angry fingers pointed at the school principals? Should they be out there building the speed bumps to slow down the traffic on guthrie? Should they be painting on the crosswalks? Should I tell them to get out there and build the new parking lot themselves? Your article seems unfair and misdirected. Why don’ t more parents walk or ride their kids to school?
Robin, I really like the acronym SHIFT as you describe it in your sidebar. It suggests a desire to seek balance in reporting and a willingness to hear other points of view. I may not shift your opinion but I appreciate the opportunity to share mine.
There isn’t a school in the district that doesn’t have problems related to cars. Even when the parking was designed in collaboration with local municipal planners, there is almost always congestion for the 20 minutes before school and the 20 minutes after—and plenty of ticketing work for the RCMP. Ironically, the greatest challenges are often in the schools where kids are considered to be close enough to walk. Even when careful plans are made to try to accommodate vehicles, create safe traffic flow, and honour the neighbourhood community, it seems there are more kids coming and going in cars every year. And so, more frustrations for parents, neighbours, and yes, administrators who really do want kids to be safe and parents to be happy.
I find the title of your post and the tone of much of it inflammatory and unfair. Is the design or redesign of traffic outside our school parking lot the responsibility of our school principals? Yes, it does look like there has been confusion and delay in addressing planning, but it seems that is a shared responsibility. The conflicting information you mention regarding parking was not invented by Paul Berry or Sherry Kennedy; it was given to them and then contradicted by others. They were sending parents the best, most current information they had.
There is an insinuation in your post that Sherry and Paul are indifferent to student safety and are waiting for children to be hurt. Robin, as a parent at Brooklyn, I’m sure you’ve seen them out in their safety vests directing traffic, encouraging vehicle flow, and watching out for student safety every day. But they still think and plan for safety when you don’t see them. Every student, every staff member, and–I would hope–every parent knows how much thought and energy they put into ensuring children are safe in the school, on the fields, and when coming or going from school.
As uncomfortable as it is to hear it, if a parent needs/chooses to drive their children to school they may have to drop off them at the front door. And if a parent wants to come into school with their child they may have to walk or ride. Or a combination of the two. Another uncomfortable suggestion: arrive ten minutes earlier in the morning and pick up ten minutes after the bell.
We have inherited a site which–though wonderful (especially with recent improvements)–isn’t perfect. I have no doubt it will become more efficient in coming months as we have strong advocates for our school among parents, the PAC, Comox Council, Mayor Ives, and town planners, and our principals.
I asked both Paul and Sherry if you had expressed your concerns to them directly or asked their about perspective, and was surprised that you had not spoken to them. I hope you do. Your advocacy joined with theirs will make a difference for our school. In areas beyond the parking lot. You have much to add to the learning community at Brooklyn, Robin.
By the way, there is no need to go through Kathleen Bell via email to reach Paul or Sherry, though she will, of course, forward emails. Either administrator can be reached by email ([email protected] or [email protected] ), or by calling the school (250 339-2232), or best of all, a face-to-face conversation.
Gerry did you not read what she wrote at all, I am confused by your response. What the school and the school district chose to do was to not acknowledge the problem which I’m sure they well anticipated – disgraceful!
Thank you to everyone for voicing their perspective.
Gerry, I agree that parents need to consider alternative transportation. But, when it is storming, that is not realistic and provisions have not been made to accommodate the inevitable influx of traffic. This article is detailing a lack of planning on the part of SD 71. Paul Berry and Sherry Kennedy are on site and responsible in that aspect. SD 71 is responsible for the longer term planning or failure to do so.
Jan, Thank you for your input. I truly appreciate it. Paul Berry and Sherry Kennedy are in the unfortunate position of being the ones publicly accountable for SD 71′s planning process. Paul Berry has initiated a dialogue with me and we will continue to discuss this process.
While I recognize that as school administrators their hands are tied in terms of capital improvements, the article did not assert that the Brooklyn administrators are solely responsible. The school district has not provided the appropriate safety measures to ensure all students and families are safe at the new Brooklyn site.
As I stated to Paul Berry this evening, as an administrator he has a responsibility to be publicly accountable to the Brooklyn community and the community at large when it comes to the safety of our children as well as the assertions put forward in regard to other parties and their impact on the current situation. I respect that he of all people is well aware of the tragedy that can result due to poor planning – whether it be going for a hike in the woods, planning a concert or getting hundreds of children to school safely in any conditions or situation. I went to Mayor Ives, Richard Kanigan, emergency services and others and what it revealed was that the assertions put forth to hundreds of parents who entrust the safety of their children to administrators every day were simply false. I could not ignore the information that they provided.
If that information is incorrect, please let me know. On the other side, I recognize that there is always more to a story than meets the eye. I look forward to the opportunity to talk directly one-on-one about what is on the table and provide a more in-depth picture of the process to readers of Our Big Earth and the Brooklyn community.
The way I see it, the issue is the volume of cars, and parents escorting their kids through traffic instead of teaching them how to use sidewalks and crosswalks. And we could use some more crosswalks.
The principals have been training us on how to use a stop and drop lane since sept. And we have had a bunch of emails home about how to drop off and pick up our kids to prepare us. Anyone who has been reading their emails from school should not have been surprised by the situation. Perhaps we as parents need to point our fingers inwards a bit more. Are we the ones making this situation unsafe for our kids? I told our principals today that I appreciate everything they are doing and that they should hang in there.
Gerry, I’m assuming that your children were not in the group that moved from the old Brooklyn site because those parents didn’t receive drop=off prep as you have, nor were we informed until 15 hours before our children’s first day of school that it may even be a concern. On top of it all we were then ‘fingered’ as the issue for all the confusion/congestion in an email following that first days confusion. It is that initial email that ‘fingered’ the parents that has sparked this broader discussion and it was the Principle at the school that started the ‘finger’ pointing and back up his justification for it with, as it turns out, false information.
How else would you expect any concerned and involved parent to react?
As far as parents making the ‘situation unsafe’ I would think the majority of parents are doing everything they can to get their kids to school safely regardless of weather, transportation and or planning issues that may be hindering that to some degree… but that’s the point. NO MATTER HOW cautious parents are this arrangement that SD 71 and this schools administrative staff have allowed to fester gives parents LIMITED choices for the safe transportation of their children to and from the school. In fact, the set-up at Brooklyn is so ill-conceived that in poor weather (where bike riding, walking and all those other alternatives you’re touting is out of the question) a parent may be faced with a choice that is ONLY unsafe and they should never be put in that situation to get their kid to school.
So that’s the issue… of course every situation isn’t perfect and all schools have their quirks but at the very least the safety of children and their parents coming to and from the school should be a high priority and it seems like at this site, and many others around the district that sadly it is not.
Pointing a finger at the parents for the lack of foresight and planning that would have addressed these isues would be just another bad idea in a long sad string of them that has led us all here.
Robin, I really appreciate you becoming involved in this issue. As PAC Chair at Valley View Elementary I have been dealing with these types of issues for the past three years at out school. The one conclusion that I have come to is that everyone needs to work much harder to resolve these issues. And by saying everyone I mean the School District office, the city and/or town planners and of course the parents. Yes the school district needs to make a better effort to move forward on adding parking spaces at our schools but we also need to make a significant change in the attitudes of all parents. We have seen parents that think it is their right to drive right to the front door of the school to drop-off and pick up their children. And at our school we have parents that drive their children to school even if they live right around the corner. So my question is how do we change this?
My main suggestion is that we stop the finger point by all sides. I have seen first hand the issues that are caused by the school district dragging their feet on making the necessary changes. But I found that bringing all involved into our PAC meeting we were able to get some movement on our traffic issues. In the bigger picture what I would like to see is better planning overall with parents, the district and the municipality of what can be down to encourage more parents to walk their children to school. And the case of our community, more sidewalks, crosswalks and pathways would definitely help, and I am sure it would help around Brooklyn/Lazo. We as parents can’t keep asking for more options to help our car society but instead look at what we can do to encourage a less car dependent environment. By opening a dialogue with all involved parties to show a willingness to make this a reality I am sure significant progress can be made.
What we have to remember if we add another 50 parking spaces another 50 cars will show up. I am not saying that we should force everybody to walk, I just think we need to look at making the walking options more accessible to all.
Again as I said Robin, thank you for being involved in this issue. I hope you can use your site an overall involvement to bring everyone together to make positive change in this area. Please remember that getting our children to school is not all about the car. And with my involvement in the PAC at Valley View I will continue to push for change as well.
David
I am wondering how many PAC meetings the upset parents have been to this year? This issue has been a hot topic for quite some time and perhaps their support earlier on for more traffic saftey would have helpful to the already over-burdened PAC and administration.
Robin Rivers
In responding to your January 6th, 2012 article titled “Administrators Fail to Provide Traffic Safety Measures at New Brooklyn Elementary”, I recognize that you are upset about the traffic congestion that is occurring as a result of the Brooklyn Elementary School community coming under one roof. Robin, there is wisdom in exploring the roots and ultimate source of a problem before publicly criticizing and slamming community members. Your bio reads that you arrived to the Comox Valley in 2006. Thus, you were present in this community when the recently elected provincial government party changed resulting in massive changes to School Districts and public education throughout BC. School District 71 (Comox Valley) has experienced major transitions as a result of the former political party feeding money into the public education system and the current political party withdrawing the financial support. Obviously BC’s political roller coaster history has created changes for the School District challenging the members of the Comox Valley community to problem-solve. Why attack the dedicated community leaders and school administrators who find themselves on the front line when the provincial government initiates drastic changes to the educational system? The Brooklyn community has been committed to holding the best interest of the youth at heart while addressing transition challenges that require cooperation between many levels of the community and government. Targeting Mr. Berry and Mrs. Kennedy the way you do in your article only reveals your lack of understanding of the full history and nature of the situation.
We live in a Temperate Rainforest climate zone where torrential rain during the wet season is normal, not extreme. The Comox Valley youth don’t only live in a temperate rainforest, they are also inheriting a world where adults need to model alternative methods of transportation to address the concerns over the carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. What an opportunity to promote clean human powered methods of traveling to and from Brooklyn Elementary School instead of habitually depending on carbon emitting cars for transportation! What an opportunity for parents to take leadership in helping to reduce car traffic volume by promoting alternatives such as having students walk while wearing weather appropriate clothing, or parents setting up neighborhood alternative transportation pooling systems, or volunteering to help with traffic safety leadership! If you are going to complain, be part of the solution.
Nobody makes another person feel. Individuals choose their own feelings. Only when adults accept responsibility for their own feelings can we as members of a community shift from emotional reactions to constructive responses. Robin, if the motto on your website is “Share, Family, Inspire, Community, Create”, I invite you to demonstrate a sense of community and respectfully co-create solutions to Brooklyn Elementary School’s traffic safety concerns.
Sincerely,
Susan, a tax-paying member of the community who sees the bigger picture.
Michelle,
Many of the parents whom I spoke with and who are upset here have attended at least a few PAC meetings this year.
Susan,
Thank you for your input…and honestly I do see the bigger picture.
This was not an opinion piece. I reported the information that was provided to me. The commentary within the piece isn’t mine. It is that of administrators, elected officials and emergency services officers.
I am, indeed, working toward a solution. I have begun by starting this discussion.
You may not like what other people (ie town officials, RCMP, etc) are saying. But, the conversation is fierce on all sides and from the reporting that I did on this piece it appears that before this very few entities that had the power to institute and instigate change were communicating very well.
I am not in any way saying parents don’t have a responsibility here or that choosing alternative options isn’t an excellent way to overcome many of these issues. The reporting of the piece revealed an issue of public accountability.
Thanks again for your perspective.
When my mom drops my brother off at school it looks really congested there. I must ask, why does no one park in the parking spaces and why are those cones blocking off an area that people could pull up infront?