Published: February 22, 2006 05:43 pm      

Parents worry about safety

David Gradick was fairly typical of the Edmond parents who addressed the school board during Monday night’s public forum on restructuring school attendance boundaries.

He has a child attending an elementary school in the district.

He was worried about safety issues related to a rapidly growing district.

And he was concerned about her being moved out of her school.

“Before I go any further, my daughter asked me to please, please let her finish the fifth grade at Washington Irving since she’s gone there all of her years,” Gradick said.

“It seems a tragedy to pull her out right when she’s about to graduate.”

School board members and an audience of nearly 100 onlookers listened to Gradick and other parents who each had three minutes to voice their concerns.

Before they began, EPS Associate Superintendent for Operations Bret Towne described the plans to be considered by the school board during its regularly scheduled meeting in March.

There were two recommendations for West Field Elementary, being built south of the Second Street and North Pennsylvania Avenue intersection, and Centennial Elementary School, to be built northeast of the Coffee Creek and Coltrane intersection.

Another plan impacted Sunset Elementary School.

The residents of Copper Creek have a shared concern — safety, Gradick said. Residents and the City of Oklahoma City split costs for a study looking at traffic in the area.

Gradick said the study said there will be a lot of traffic in the Copper Creek addition area, in the order of 10,000-13,000 more automobiles in the future.

Gradick said the Oklahoma City City Council has not made solving the traffic problem a priority. He asked the board to use its influence to help persuade the council to do something about the problem.

“A child can’t walk across Pennsylvania,” he said. “We’ve recommended at least three stop lights in that one-mile section just to control this traffic.”

Toni James, president of the Northern Hills Parent Teacher Organization, favored Centennial plan No. 2, which would provide relief for John Ross Elementary, which faces overcrowding issues.

James asked other parents from Northern Hills in attendance to stand, one half of the audience stood in unison.

Other issues raised by parents included properly feeding school children, safety in the schools and accuracy on enrollment numbers for specific schools.

Several parents praised the realignment committee for its work on the issue.

(Education reporter Mark Schlachtenhaufen may be reached via e-mail at ms@edmondsun.com.)