Erie schools chief, others take to the streets to urge safer walking routes for students

About 8,000 students in the 10,000-student Erie School District walk to and from school daily. They face numerous challenges on their routes, especially in the winter.

Unshoveled and icy sidewalks, busy intersections, inattentive drivers and stray dogs are just a few of the problems the students encounter.

The problems have become so prevalent that the Erie School District and the United Way of Erie County have launched a campaign to make the public more aware of the need to increase safety for students walkers.

The campaign got started in highly visible fashion on Tuesday afternoon.

Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito, other school district officials and members of the United Way and other organizations walked a 1.2-mile route to Edison Elementary School, at 1921 East Lake Road.

They started at the United Way offices, at the former Wayne School at East Sixth Street and East Avenue, and traversed the same sidewalks and street crossings that many students at Edison also use.

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The cars whizzed by.

Some sidewalks were broken and strewn with high weeds.

An abandoned and overturned shopping cart partially blocked one path.

And though only a dusting of snow covered the ground, participants in the walk recalled how the deep snow and unshoveled sidewalks in the winter of 2022 forced many Edison students to walk in the street on East Lake Road.

Those dangers must end, Polito and others said on Tuesday.

"Our entire community should be at DEFCON-10 urgency-wise, to keep these children safe," said Daryl Craig, founder of the Blue Coats peacekeeping and student assistance program.

Blue Coats members help walk Erie School District students to and from school.

Erie School District takes over crossing guards on Feb. 6

Craig spoke at a 30-minute session at the United Way offices before the walking tour. The offices are in the former Wayne building, which the Erie Center for Arts and Technology renovated.

Craig, Polito and Laurie Root, the head of the United Way in Erie, spoke about the need for increased student safety and an advertising campaign and other measures that the organizations are undertaking.

Polito urged members of the public to keep their sidewalks clear and to help students by volunteering for the Blue Coats "walking school bus" safety program or by applying to be a school crossing guard.

"We'd love to have you help us out," Polito said.

"We want to work together with the community — we can't do it alone — to really make sure that those walking routes are safe for our students," he said.

Walking school bus:Program maps safer walking routes for Erie students

The Erie School District on Feb. 6 is taking over the crossing guard program from the city of Erie. The district received 100 applications for the positions, has hired 18 guards and is processing another 18 more to be hired, district officials said.

School district steps in:Erie School Board approves district taking over crossing guard program from city

The district is paying the guards $31.94 an hour, for 30 to 45 minutes of work in the mornings and about a half hour of work in the afternoons.

The district has created an online page dedicated to increasing safety for student walkers: eriesd.org/walkingsafety. The page includes information about the crossing guards and how to report safety concerns, such as unshoveled sidewalks, to authorities with the city of Erie, which is responsible for enforcing the sidewalk ordinance.

Why not bus more Erie School District students?

The Erie School District buses about 2,800 students, leaving the district to estimate about 8,000 students walk. Following state law, the district's transportation policy requires it to bus elementary and middle school students who live more than 1.5 miles from school, and pays for busing for students in high school and middle school who live more than 2 miles from school.

The district uses its own yellow buses for elementary and middle school students and special education students. It pays to transport high school students on Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority buses.

The district in 2022-23 budgeted $6.5 million for transportation, including $1.9 million in salaries. The $6.5 million accounts for about 2.6% of the district's total expenses of $252 million for 2022-23.

Busing more students would increase the costs for the district and put it in the difficult situation of trying to find more drivers in a tough job market, Polito said. He spoke about the 1.5-mile radius for elementary and middle school students and the 2-mile radius for high school students.

"If we take that elementary (radius) and just reduce it down a half mile to a 1-mile walking distance, we'd have to double our fleet," Polito said. "That would take our drivers from 30 to 60, and we're having trouble right now even filling the driving positions that we have.

"So, that is a big challenge right now and something we will continue to revisit maybe when the labor market lightens up a little bit, but at this point we're transporting as may students as we physically can."

What are the penalties for an unshoveled sidewalk?

Working with the United Way, the city recently sent letters to 310 businesses, reminding them of their responsibilities for keeping sidewalks safe, said Mike Jaruszewicz, the United Way's senior vice president for community impact.

The United Way partners with the Erie School District to implement the community schools model to provide additional programs to help students and families. The United Way and the district sought ways to work with the city on student safety, Jaruszewicz said.

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The organizations wanted to see "what we can actually affect," he said. "There are layers and layers and layers."

Mayor Joe Schember said the city will work with the school district. He attended Tuesday's session but did not speak and did not walk the route to Edison, though the city's new planning director, Dave Forrest, made the trek.

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In an interview, Schember said enforcing the ordinances for shoveling sidewalks can be difficult. He said property owners must be given time to clear the snow and some property owners are unable to shovel.

"It is always a challenge," Schember said.

"If it is blatant," he said of a sidewalk violation, "the school district can contact us." He said the city will determine what action to take.

The requirements for clearing sidewalks in the city are enumerated in Ordinance 7762, which City Council adopted on Jan. 26, 1934. The ordinance is listed under Article 717 of the city's codified ordinances.

Snow problems:Sidestepping the snow

The ordinance states, among other things, that a property owner "must remove or cause to be removed all snow, ice or sleet from the sidewalk, whether paved or unpaved, in front of the respective premises within three hours after the same shall have ceased to fall or form thereon, unless such ice or snow is so hardened or frozen that it cannot be removed without injury to the sidewalk, in which case the walk shall be kept sprinkled with sand or sawdust to make the surface of the sidewalk safe, but the ice must be removed as soon as it is possible to do so."

And, further: "Whoever violates any of the provisions of this article is guilty of a summary offense, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of $300 or imprisoned not more than 90 days or both. Upon each succeeding offense, the violation shall be subject to the maximum penalties."

A unified effort to help Erie student walkers

On Tuesday, Polito and the other high-profile pedestrians did not delve into talk about ordinances and fines. They pleaded for everyone in the city to work together to make sidewalks and streets safe for all student walkers, rain, snow or shine.

"We want to see a heightened sense of urgency throughout the city in terms of the safety of our children," Daryl Craig said. "It could be life or death."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie schools chief, others take to streets to urge safer walking routes