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Home My WebLink About2012-02-02-STAS-min Ad Hoc School Transportation and Safety Study Committee Meeting Minutes Thursday February 2, 2012 at 9am Town Hall Room G-15 Present: Elaine Celi (LPS Transportation Coordinator), Judy Crocker (Chair), MaryEllen Dunn (LPS Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Business), Captain Manual Ferro (LPD), Craig Weeks. Absent:Sharon Kendall, Martin Cohen Liaisons: Deb Mauger (Board of Selectmen); Jessie Steigerwald (School Committee) Guests:Bonnie Brown Handouts for today’s meeting: Agenda for February 2, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. (Today’s agenda) o Draft Minutes from January 19, 2012 meeting o Draft of House No. 01293 (… to authorize “cities and towns to intall o video monitoring systems to detect certain motor vehicle violations.”) “January 17, 2012 – Estabrook School Access Memo from Bill Hadley, o Mark Corr, Keith Hoyle, Manny Ferro, John Fleck and John Livsey” “STS – Item (1/23/12) Draft Action” o Review and Approval of Prior Minutes The meeting minutes of January 19 were presented by Judy Crocker and unanimously approved by the Committee (motion made by Craig Weeks, second by Captain Ferro). New Committee E-mail and Website Question Judy Crocker shared new e-mail address and thanked Elaine Celi for helping set up this resource.STScommittee.Lex@gmail.com Judy will ask Sharon Kendall if she would help put up an information page on the town website. LWV Transportation Forum Friday, April 13 th th Members agreed to attend on April 13 and will present as needed in Judy Crocker’s absence. (Able to assist: Deb Mauger, Jessie Steigerwald, Mary Ellen Dunn, Elaine Celi, Captain Ferro. Craig Weeks will also try to attend.) Judy will circulate the power point. Town Meeting Citizens Petition Judy Crocker contacted Nancy Corcoran-Ronchetti to schedule a time in the Information nd Sessions offered by Town Meeting Members Association. Save the date: March 22. We will need handouts and presentation. Craig Weeks and Bettina McGimsey (Hastings SRTS PTA representative) may be able to present. Judy will reach out to Safe Routes to Schools participants. Kindergarten All Town Orientation, March 15th Judy will contact Carol Pilarski to request an Information Table. Elaine does provide handouts for parents. An information table for parents would be helpful and Elaine would be able to be there. New MassDOT survey . Michelle Ciccolo from Planning Board has asked people to take the survey regarding investigating local transportation options. Safety Recommendations from Public Safety At last night’s ETF meeting, Chief Corr said there were some modifications to the Public Safety document distributed to the Estabrook Task Force and Town Manager regarding Estabrook School Access. A traffic signal listed under Priority #2 is not set in stone. It would be located at Grove St and the Estabrook entrance and cost approximately $300,000. This is the same cost of the proposed two-year Estabrook construction busing subsidy. Chief Corr was adamant that there will be no queuing on Grove Street. A brief discussion around the definition of queuing followed, including possible ways to enforce such measures. The policy would affect all nine schools. MA House Bill 1293: Stop Arm Ms Dunn and Captain Ferro updated committee members regarding proposed legislation for changing the infarction for passing a stopped school bus with its flashing arm engaged. They will continue to discuss areas where this legislation might be made more effective, and will then communicate with the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee to provide information before letters are sent in response to the legislation. Rep Donato is the local co-sponsor. Articles 4 & 17 Judy Crocker will meet with Mary Ellen Dunn and Elaine Celli to discuss necessary outreach for Article 4 (proposed Estabrook construction busing subsidy) and Article 17 (proposed school transportation subsidy) for the Appropriation Committee, Selectmen, and School Committee. They will meet with Joe Pato from Appropriation. Review of “STS – Item (1/23/12) Draft Action” Edits were discussed. Updated terms will be: School Transportation, Community Education and Public Safety. Deb Mauger introduced concept of Chief Corr’s pyramid. Captain Ferro explained three branches of enforcement are: engineering, enforcement, and education. Edits were made to reflect this in alignment with language Police Department already uses. Decision to broaden “School Policies” to “Policies” as there is agreement that safe transportation and safety are community goals. Policy Discussions Benefits of establishing uniform times for school arrival and dismissal were discussed. Mary Ellen Dunn will circulate information to principals about bus contract with more specific information about requirements for arrival and dismissal (in relation to the contract) to gauge the resources or strategies necessary to make cross-town schedule alignment manageable. Currently, there may be some confusion about actual start time. In some schools, “Morning Work” might begin at 8:30 a.m., even though school officially begins at 8:45 a.m.. This confusion creates some pressure around arrival and perhaps some unintended consequences, which compound the queuing problem. Children may be concerned (or parents) about being “late” when they are not actually tardy. This compresses arrival, where it could be spread out a bit. If drop-off time were a uniform window for elementary schools, it could help alleviate this problem, for example an arrival window from: 8:30 – 8:45 a.m. Craig shared that car counts at Bridge could vary with 30% walking and rest arriving in crunches – all trying to arrive at exactly the same time. Release also might vary to let walkers and bicycle riders out first, then load bus riders, then release students who will be leaving by car. Should there be single or multiple loading points for children? Reviewing the school’s traffic plans, it appears that two elementary schools (Estabrook and Hastings) have Kindergarten pick-up location in different places. Signs Committee members discussed best way to manage new school signs and ways to report broken signs. Mark Valente will be best contact. Questions were raised about funding. Deb Mauger noted that additional funding requests go through Board of Selectmen. Craig Weeks suggested this Committee may want to make a recommendation as a Committee for uniform signs with reflective strips at all schools to mark school zone. (ANSI. The yellow format.) Craig also suggested the recommendation could itself help provide community education as it could let community members know how they can report damaged signs. The following motion was made to the Board of Selectmen by Judy Crocker, seconded by Captain Ferro, and passed unanimously by committee members: The Ad Hoc School Transportation and Safety Study Committee recommends: that the Board of Selectmen implement uniform school zone signage in compliance with ANSI standards, which includes reflective strips, and to replace current school zone signs. Certain schools or intersections may require enhanced signage, which should be implemented in cooperation with the Board of Selectmen and the Police Department. A photo of school signage wear and lack of uniformity which was shown to the School Committee and Selectmen last fall in the School Transportation Report 2011 will be included in the correspondence. Jessie Steigerwald suggested the School Committee’s Policy Sub-Committee might want to get connected with the work of this group in order to understand some of the thought going into recommendations, and will speak with Margaret Coppe about inviting members to a meeting. She will also reach out to School Committee members to invite them to attend in order to follow the progress of the Committee. The meeting was adjourned at 10:58 a.m. March 15, 2012 at 9:00 am in the Town Hall Room G-15. The next meeting will be on Ms. Steigerwald will serve as secretary. Respectfully submitted, Jessie Steigerwald