Parents concerned about safety as kids walk to school
Shauna Poirier can see Plainsview School from her backyard — on a clear day.
On a blustery winter day, the northwest Regina school practically disappears, as does the busy Courtney Street “speedway” that runs beyond her back gate.
Next school year, Poirier’s eightyear-old son Spencer will be walking to school, sometimes in conditions like that. He’s one of about 120 Plainsview students whose school bus service will be cancelled come September.
Plainsview, which shares a building with the Catholic St. Nicholas School, is located in a field that is one day slated to become the Coopertown neighbourhood.
The Rosewood Park Alliance Church, about 200 metres away, is the only other building in its vicinity.
“This is a bald open prairie,” said Poirier.
“There’s nothing north of the school, there’s nothing south of the school, there’s nothing west of the school,” Leigha Hubick, chair of the school community council (SCC), agreed. “And when you have such an open environment, obviously it poses a number of safety concerns, especially for young children.”
In spring 2017, the Regina Public School Division restructured its transportation zones, as the Ministry of Education decided that students living within a onekilometre radius of school would be ineligible to take the school bus.
Previously, students living beyond 1.2 kilometres of the school, following street layouts, were funded to take the bus.
The new criteria disqualified 1,100 students from bus service, for a cost savings of $1.35 million.
But Plainsview students were exempt from the new transportation zone for one year, to give the city time to improve infrastructure in the area.
A traffic light was installed at Courtney Street and Mapleford Gate, but other safety issues remain; Plainsview parents believe the exemption should continue until those are addressed.
There’s a lack of sidewalks or a paved bike path along Courtney, although there is a gravel path in the ditch.
There’s a lack of crosswalks, aside from that lone traffic light.
There’s the issue of people speeding through the 50 km/ h zone.
There’s a tailings pond that is not fenced in.
“We’re not asking for forever, we’re just asking for one more year,” said Hubick.
The school division is adamant that won’t occur, due to “a number of financial reasons,” said Terry Lazarou, spokesman for Regina Public.
“We are focused on safety of our students, but it remains the responsibility of parents to ensure that their students can get to school if they’re not within the transportation zone.”
At the adjoining St. Nicholas School, students were also given a year’s exemption from walking. Come September, those outside of the transportation zone will be walking to school, like their Plainsview counterparts.
Ward 9 city councillor Jason Mancinelli said he has raised some of the infrastructure issues with the city.
“I don’t think it’s just a problem for Plainsview School per se, as the northwest area,” said Mancinelli, who has received upward of 30 letters from concerned parents.
Even though Courtney Street doesn’t directly border the school, Mancinelli would like to see a school zone there, similar to the one near Luther High School along Dewdney Avenue.
It becomes a 40 km/h school zone when lights are flashing “during the busy times for school kids during the day.”
As it is, the school zone near Plainsview is limited to Mapleford Boulevard and ends about 100 metres west of Courtney.
Norman Kyle, City of Regina director of roadways and transportation, said that is unlikely to happen, because the school is not adjacent to Courtney.
He said if residents see people speeding or running a red light, they should contact the Regina Police Service.
He also said studies have shown that lengthening school zones does not always increase safety, as drivers become frustrated.
Mancinelli wants a pedestrian pathway to run all along Courtney Street.
“I think it’s horrible that there’s no sidewalk for the kids to walk on,” said Mancinelli. “I think that gets me more than anything. … Even not just for the students, but for the people in the northwest. That’s a developed area, it’s been there for a long time … I think it should have been done a long time ago.”
“As a parent, the idea of sending your five-year-old to school, in the middle of winter, in the dark, in their snowsuit, to walk in a snow-filled ditch to school, is extremely unsettling,” said Hubick. “And I think this is the reality that parents are going to have to face because the busing exemption has been denied.”
“This is a different scenario than being within the one kilometre,” added Poirier. “I think that a country mile should count double, really, because of just the extra risk and extra issues that come with walking through a field.”
A multi-use pathway system is in the Coopertown neighbourhood plan; its construction would coincide with residential development there.
Kyle said many of the parents’ concerns will be addressed once the Coopertown development begins. In the meantime, he would advise children to walk through the Maple Ridge neighbourhood to get to school.
With the Coopertown concept plan approved, Mancinelli said it’s only a matter of time before other issues could come up, and has raised those discussions with the city as well.