Schools given deadline by town to address traffic issues

Springfield’s zoning administrator has given the Springfield School District until Nov. 1 to resolve the apparent zoning violations dealing with traffic problems at the town’s two elementary schools.

http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20101023/NEWS02/710239957 Published October 23, 2010 in the Rutland Herald         Schools given deadline by town to address traffic issues         By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer         SPRINGFIELD — Springfield’s zoning administrator has given the Springfield School District until Nov. 1 to resolve the apparent zoning violations dealing with traffic problems at the town’s two elementary schools.         Bill Kearns, the zoning administrator, said Thursday that he sent a letter last week to the school district setting the Nov. 1 deadline, but at the same time giving the school district until Nov. 8 to come in and talk to the Springfield Development Review Board about how they are going to solve the problems.         This fall is the first time that all of Springfield’s elementary students are attending just the two schools, which were largely rebuilt and expanded in the past year. At the same time, the School Board decided to stop the tradition of each school housing each grade,         The development review board is meeting Nov. 8, and Kearns said he put the school issue on the agenda for discussion and invited school officials to attend.         Kearns said traffic congestion at the schools, particularly Elm Hill School, was creating a safety issue.         The problem, Kearns said, is that parents are showing up 45 minutes early before the close of school to pick up their children, rather than letting the children go home on the bus.         “There’s too many cars up there on narrow roads,” said Kearns, saying it posed a serious safety issue.         “Neither school is a neighborhood school. Neither school is being used as proposed by the school in the testimony in support of its application,” Kearns wrote in his four-page letter to the School Board and Superintendent Frank Perotti.         The Springfield Development Review Board approved the school’s plans to renovate Elm Hill and Union Street schools, but in March 2009 it didn’t include plans to close Park Street School.         Another problem, Kearns said, is that the two schools are no longer “neighborhood” schools, because the schools are now organized around grades, with Elm Hill School teaching all of Springfield’s kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade pupils.         Most kids can’t walk to school even if they wanted to, Kearns said.         Kearns said that parents start lining up along the streets surrounding Elm Hill 45 minutes before school gets out at 3:15 p.m., often blocking people into their own homes and making it close to impossible for the school buses to get through.         Kearns, Town Manager Robert Forguites, Perotti and other school and town officials met Monday to discuss the problem. While several solutions were discussion, according to Kearns, Perotti and Forguites, the school district still hasn’t produced a traffic study that was a condition of its March 2009 town permit.         Perotti said earlier this week that the school district was working to resolve the town’s concerns, and he agreed it was a problem of too many parents picking up their children rather than letting them use the buses. He couldn’t be reached for comment on Thursday.         He said the town and schools are paying a significant amount of money for bus service for students, and it isn’t being used. School buses leave Elm Hill School in particular with few students aboard, he said.         Kearns said the traffic jam at Union Street lasts about 20 minutes, while the problem at Elm Hill usually takes close to 90 minutes to clear.         Kearns said he wasn’t being more lenient with the school district’s violations than others, noting that he usually sends a letter of warning of violations before issuing the formal violation.          http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20101023/NEWS02/710239957