Keeping students 'as safe as possible'
Apr. 11—The establishment of the area in front of the Cullman County Child Development Center and the Cullman Area Technology Academy as a recognized School Zone, and its reduced speed limit, serve as a prime example to how collaborative efforts can bring about effective change at the community level, local officials say.
Located just off of AL-HWY 31 — one of Cullman County's main throughways — the CCCDC and CATA have a combined enrollment of just more than 800 students. While there have been safety measures, including a security fence around the perimeter of the CCCDC, put into place to separated these students from the busy highway they are located on, CCCDC Principal Chris Chambers said he was approached by a concerned parent, Jennifer Hodges, that an effort was made to expand those safety measures to the roadway itself.
"We are constantly assessing the safety of the school, the board has been good about getting us security fencing because we have students who will run and have ran in the past and the parents of those children deserve to know their child is as safe as possible," Chambers said. "We started the process with the lights a little over three years ago; it was actually a parent who brought it up first and she [Hodges] is one of the main voices, although there have been other voices and other parents who have helped to make this need known. She approached me with the question of what it would take to reduce the speed limit and then I began researching it to find out."
Through his conversations with members of the Cullman County Commission, Chambers learned that any changes to the zoning or speed limits along the highway would need approval from the Alabama Department of Transportation, who would require evidence in the form of a traffic study, for the need for the request.
Chambers said that he and several parents reached out to local state legislators Sen. Garlan Gudger and Rep. Randall Shedd to serve as a liaison between them and ALDOT, but discussions were stalled after the submittal of the traffic study due to the COVID-19 pandemic — which would later cause another delay in the project by creating a manufacturing shortage for the circuit board needed within the flashing road sign.
"If it wasn't for this gentleman [Chambers], the county commission and us bringing in ALDOT, this never would have happened. It took all of us to be a team and make sure all this came together and it finally did," Gudger said. "He [Chambers] was really the glue that brought all of us together though. He's been on us the whole time and I just want to make sure he gets the credit he deserves. Without the principal doing his job or staying on us we wouldn't be able to have this."
Chambers said Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette also played a crucial role in the project's development by submitting proposals to the school board to supplement state funds secured by Gudger and Shedd and to enter a contract with the county commission to program and maintain the flashing roadsigns.
"The CCCDC is a special place as well as CATA (which is located adjacently to the North of the CCCDC). We have a lot of buses and traffic coming in and out of here every day and we can't get it safe enough. This has been a team effort over a period of about three years. Senator Gudger got the state to help us fund the project and the local school system paid for the other half, the commissioners have agreed to maintain it [the signs] on an ongoing basis. So, it's been a huge team effort from everybody and we finally got it in place and I think it's going to be a huge help to the safety of our schools and our students and we're really excited about that," Barnette said.
Chambers may have been described by Gudger as the "glue" which brought the project together, but he acknowledges how essential each individual role was to its completion.
"You're only as good as the people around you, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Well, there wasn't a weak link here. Everybody was on board from the very beginning and did their part and followed through. From the parents who continued to advocate for it, to educators, to legislators, to ALDOT and Cullman County Commission; this was a total team effort," Chambers said.
Hodges could not be reached by deadline of this article.
