Hoping to increase safety and encourage walking, two north-metro schools will put more than $200,000 in grants to work shoring up walking routes and adding safety features aimed at drivers.
Noble Elementary School in Golden Valley plans to use its $35,000 grant to install solar-powered speed radar signs on Noble Avenue N., improve crosswalk markings and provide training for crossing guards. Right now only about 20 of the school's 385 students walk to school.
At Valentine Hills Elementary School in Arden Hills, the city is planning to use its $175,000 grant to install a trail along the south side of County Road E2, connecting the school to the neighborhood bordered by Venus Avenue and to the nearby branch of the Ramsey County Public Library.
Many parents pick up and drop off students at the bottom of a hill fronted by E2; administrators hope that the addition of a sidewalk will slow down and contain students who currently run down the hill toward their parents' cars.
In both cases, the hope is that improved safety will lead to an increase in the number of walkers and eventually decrease congestion around the school at morning and afternoon bells, which will make walking even safer.
The grants, from the National Center for Safe Routes to School in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, came out of a $2 million sum awarded to 27 infrastructure, educational and community organizing projects around the state.
"A number of our students are dropped off and picked up because parents are concerned about children walking because of traffic," said Noble Principal Lori Sundberg. "We hope that with these improvements, more of our children will walk."
Fewer than 15 percent of Minnesota students in grades K-8 walk or bike to school, according to Kristie Billiar, coordinator of the Minnesota Department of Education's Safe Routes program.
