“As the Principal of Imagine Rosefield Charter School in Surprise, I am excited to announce a unique effort between the city of Surprise and Imagine Rosefield to promote pedestrian safety for our students. We are working together to improve the safety of the roads and walking paths that our students travel daily to get to and from school through the creation of a “Safe Routes to School” Program at our school. This program will help faculty, students and parents focus on getting more of our students safely walking to and from school each day from neighboring developments.
Imagine Rosefield has decided to become proactive about the safety and health of our students by promoting opportunities for our kids to walk or ride their bicycles to school. If more children walked or bicycled to school, it would reduce the number of cars near the school at pick-up and drop-off times, making it safer for walkers and bicyclists, while also reducing traffi c congestion. Similarly, more walkers and bicyclists may lead to more driver attentiveness and fewer traffic incidents. Our biggest priority is for safety on our streets and our hope is that the community can come together to slow down on the roads, be attentive to children walking in the areas around the school and ensure that we yield to these kids as they cross the road in marked crosswalks. All of these small steps can lead to great progress in the safety and well-being of our children.
The city of Surprise, Imagine Rosefield Administration and our Parent-Teacher Organization are teaming up to apply for a Safe Routes to School infrastructure grant through the Arizona Department of Transportation. This grant will help us implement our safety goals throughout the school year and make the area around Imagine Rosefield safer for our students to get out of their parents’ cars and start walking to school.
We will be applying for funds to install a “hawk light” crosswalk at the intersection of 151st Avenue and Cactus Road. This is a major crossing point for many of our students who live in Marley Park and Rancho Gabriella. If installed, we believe the safety barrier many parents see from a lack of a safe crosswalk will be lifted and more students will get
out of the car and walk or bike to school. This is just the start to great things to come for our students, as our intent is to have our program grow each year. On Oct. 6, we participated in our fi rst “International Walk to School Day” event and had over 65 students, staff and parents join Mayor Truitt to walk from Reems to school.
The event was a huge success and we look forward to adding more of these type events throughout the school year. Please join me in talking with your children about the benefits of walking or riding a bicycle to school and also about the steps that they can take to make their journey safe.
Editor’s Note: Mr. Hanna is the principal of the Imagine Rosefield.”
Column published on November 17, 2010 in the Surprise Independent.