Is school district working to stem illegal parking?

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QThe intersection of Highway 98 and Avenida De Oro from about 2:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. becomes congested with illegal parking as parents try to pick up their teens from Calexico High School on both sides of the street and center median. Is the Calexico Unified School District or police department going to take action? There are students running onto the street in all directions without disregard to the heavy vehicle traffic in this intersection. Parents picking up their children need to take in consideration that drivers coming off of Highway 98 onto Avenida de Oro at times are blinded by the sun or trying to dodge westbound Highway 98 vehicle traffic. This is a preventable accident. I hope we don’t have another accident like we did on the eastside of town where we lost a Blanche Charles Elementary School student. — Villa De Oro Resident, Calexico

ABoth the CUSD and police department are working on finding a solution, but it’s not an easy one. Calexico Interim Police Chief Reggie Gomez immediately saw the issue and did some initial work.

He collected students himself and talked to them about using the crossing walks, so have other police officers. The fact is they can’t force students to cross safely. As far as parents illegally parking, unfortunately the police department is understaffed and doesn’t have the ability to simply station an officer there every day. It’s also the parent’s responsibility to properly pick up their child.

“Our school and district personnel encourages students to abide by local traffic codes,” said CUSD Superintendent Maria Ambriz. “Students are encouraged to use the legal crosswalks (two on Encinas in front of high school and one at Encinas and Highway 98) and we have crossing guards at each of these locations.”

“Unfortunately, at times some of our local motorists do enter Encinas from Highway 98 and make illegal U-turns for example, which of course endangers pedestrians in front of and around the high school,” she said.

Gomez said the two met recently to look into possible Caltrans funds for school and transportation safety, which could help somehow alleviate the situation. Whether anything will come of it remains to be seen. Rest assured, however, both entities know of the issue and are working to remedy it.