From the Westchester Elementary School Leadership Committee…

Westchester Elementary School had its first “Walk & Roll to School” event on Friday, September 11.  The “Walk & Roll” program has been a popular way for students and parents to foster a sense of community, walkability, fitness, and conservation.  This “Walk & Roll” will look very different from those in the past—students and parents will carry bright, yellow caution flags. Westchester has provided the flags due to an increase in traffic fatalities and accidents along Scott Boulevard, which fronts the school. “It is our hope that the flags will not only increase the visibility and safety of our students and parents, but also raise awareness about the dangerous traffic conditions along Scott,” said Kimberly Head Amos, the head of Westchester’s School Leadership Team (SLT) Safety
Committee.

The Safety Committee has been meeting for over a year to discuss improvements to the traffic and pedestrian conditions along Scott as well as the surrounding surface streets and intersections. Committee members have met with city and state authorities as well as various community groups in an effort to make this part of Decatur safer and more pedestrian friendly for everyone. “The officials with whom we have met—and there have been many—all want to help us achieve our goal. Unfortunately, there is a lot of red tape and budget concerns around the issue. The flags are our way to provide an immediate impact while we continue to push for change,” commented Rachel Cogburn, a committee lead on inter-agency planning and cooperation.

The growing congestion on the streets of the metro area is a current problem which needs a long-term solution. This has led to creative involvement on the part of community and school groups, such as the efforts by the Westchester Elementary School’s Safety Committee. Drivers should slow down and drive carefully when they see these yellow flags; people’s safety and lives depend on it.

Greg Coleson writes in…

I am one of the Walk and Roll coordinators at Clairemont Elementary. We had about ~250 of the ~350 students participate in the Walk and Roll day by either walking or riding their bikes to school today. I thought this was newsworthy because of the rather incredible participation rate.