Highland Elementary School has received a grant to pay for a study to be completed this year that identifies areas of concern and recommendations for providing safer routes to school for students who walk, ride bikes, or skateboard.
“Last year, we received a call from Grand Forks Safe Kids, and they represent northwest Minnesota and North Dakota,” said Highland Elementary School Principal Chris Trostad, “They reached out to me and said they had an opportunity for safe routes to school grant and I said, ‘yeah absolutely’ so we’re excited about it.”
With the preschool addition and younger students attending Highland, Trostad believes this will be an excellent opportunity to make the routes to school safer. Highland is working with a transportation planner out of Thief River Falls to help conduct the study. “We have a transportation planner, his name is Tim Finseth, and he is guiding us through this study, and as a result of doing the study, it opens us up to access potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to safe routes to schools.” Said Trostad.
The potential ways the money can be used for safe routes include LED lighting on walk paths, more sidewalks leading up to the school, and flashing lights at intersections.
Trostad stated the sidewalk situation leading up to Highland could be much safer. “I think there are some glaring issues that we have for students coming from the east,” said Trostad, “They pretty much have to walk on the road to get to Highland school, or they have to cut through the tree row. And the students from the north must come down from Barret Street and walk around Highland.” Trostad stated with the grant funding; sidewalks could be installed in those needed areas.
Highland Elementary will host a parent/student meeting on Tuesday, September 26, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This meeting is for parents to express concerns, thoughts, and ideas to improve the Safe Routes to Schools ideas. All parents of students who attend Highland Elementary are encouraged to attend.
