Committee seeks community input on safe routes to school

A normal scene in the morning in front of Falls Elementary School includes school buses and private vehicles playing leap frog and students dashing between vehicles from the staff parking lot to the sidewalk.

That scenario has leaders from International Falls and the Falls school district concerned about students’ safety.

A committee made up of representatives of the city, school district and parents are working to address safety issues with the help of a grant the district recently received from the Minnesota Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School program.

Community input is sought at a meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 in the International Falls City Council chambers in the Municipal Building.

At the meeting, the committee is expected to inform the public on the state-wide Safe Routes to School program and gather input on local assets and barriers to safety for students traveling by bus, car, foot or bike to school.

The committee, which formed in November, has been already gathering information through in-class tallies and a survey distributed to parents with children in Kindergarten through eighth grade. Results from the survey are expected to be given at the Jan. 10 meeting.

The committee, using meeting facilitation and planning assistance from the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, is expected to use the input as it works for the next six to eight months to develop an International Fall Safe Routes to School plan.

For more information, visit the project Web site at www.arrowheadplanning.org/internationalfallssrts, or contact Ellen Pillsbury with ARDC at 218-529-7554 or Jeff Veeder with the Falls school district at 283-4406 ext. 185.