Safe Routes to Schools
Team Leader Newsletter
January 2004

TEAM LEADER UPDATES

1. Bring School Pools to Your School
2. Treasure Your Neighborhood Safety Poster Contest
3. Frequent Rider Miles Spring 2004
4. Help choose prizes for Frequent Rider Miles
5. Safety Posters available for Classrooms
6. Looking for Hero Teachers

GENERAL NEWS

7. New Contract for Safe Routes to Schools
8. Reauthorization for Safe Routes to Schools Capital Funds
9. Sunshine Bicycle Center donates tools
10. Featured School of the Month Rancho School, Novato

TEAM LEADER UPDATES

1. Bring School Pools to your School

Safe Routes to Schools has formed a partnership with RIDES for Bay Area Commuters to provide an on-line database to any school that wants to encourage more carpooling, walking school buses and bike trains. The School Pool project works through organizing neighborhood by neighborhood. The project is ready to launch and has already been embraced by the Reed and Mill Valley School Districts. We will provide you with registration forms both in paper and on-line, a brochure that explains the project and how to get started, a letter home to parents, and other miscellaneous forms. Parents can sign up either on-line or through the paper form and RIDES then provides them with matches from their neighborhood. The database is completely confidential and will be confined to parents from the school. Everyone signing up will be checked against the school database to ensure that no one can get information who is not a parent at your school. The School Pool will assist you in promoting children walking, biking or carpooling together to school in a group. If you want more information or would like to bring School Pools to your school, please contact wendi@marinbike.org

2. Treasure Your Neighborhood Safety Poster Contest

Pleasant Valley School has decided to launch a Treasure Your Neighborhood Safety poster contest. We will provide a template that will say “Treasure Your Neighborhood” and “Slow Down for Our Kids”. The children will then draw pictures on the blank space provided and be able to add more text if they wish. Everyone is a winner as the posters will be used to promote safe driving throughout the Pleasant Valley area in Novato, and perhaps beyond. This template is available to other schools who also would like to participate. To find out more contact wendi@marinbike.org

3. Frequent Rider Miles Spring 2004 Last Chance.

This the last call for schools to respond that want to participate in the Frequent Rider Miles contest starting in April. Changes to the contest this year: We will count school trips both ways. Every mode will be counted as one point, including cycling, walking, busing and carpooling. The contest will last six weeks instead of eight weeks. Trek Bicycles will once again be sponsoring our Frequent Rider Miles. Bikes will be provided as prizes for every participating schools as well as other bike accessories. For more information on the contest go to www.saferoutestoschools.org under contests (note: this year’s changes have not been updated yet). To sign up for the contest contact Melanie@marinbike.org

4. Help Choose Prizes

Safe Routes to Schools is still looking for a few parents and children who have participated in Frequent Rider Miles in the past who can help choose the “rewards” that come when cards are turned in. Some of these rewards worked and some didn’t. I need your expert opinion. If you would like to help, please contact me at wendi@marinbike.org

5. Safety Posters available

We have a number of Safety posters and flyers left over from years gone by. These include The Six Simple Steps for Staying Safe and the Six Simple Steps for Saving Lives both as flyers and as poster; the Four Fantastic Reasons to Walk and ride both as flyers and posters; Wear light protective clothing poster; and I Walk Safely Posters. They’re yours for free and we’ll deliver to your school. Just let us know what you want by contacting Melanie@marinbike.org

6. Looking for Hero Teachers

The best way to get the kids more excited and involved in Safe Routes to Schools is to get the teachers more excited and involved. At many schools there are teachers who are avid bike riders or walkers who might be interested in incorporating SR2S curriculum into their regular classroom lessons and help to encourage more teachers to do the same. If you know of a teacher at your school who might fit this description please let us know by contacting Melanie@marinbike.org

GENERAL NEWS

7. New Contract for Safe Routes to Schools

Safe Routes to Schools is now officially a project of the Marin County Department of Public Works. Thanks to a Bay Area Air Quality Management District grant obtained by Supervisor Hal Brown, The DPW will oversee the project on behalf of the County, as well as the cities and towns of Marin. The project team will remain the same with Nelson Nygaard Associates providing project management, David Parisi and Associates providing engineering consulting, and the Marin County Bicycle Coalition providing program implementation. DPW staff Jack Baker is overseeing the project and Philip Ho is assigned to work with the project team.

8. Reauthorization for Safe Routes to Schools Capital Funds

The Surface Transportation Policy Project, as part of a Children's Transportation Initiative, is sponsoring legislation to reauthorize the State of California’s Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program that is set to sunset February 1st, 2005. SB 1087, sponsored by Senator Nel Soto would continue to dedicate at least $20-25 million a year of federal funds for six categories of projects: sidewalk improvements; traffic calming and speed reduction; pedestrian/bicycle crossing improvements; on-street bicycle facilities; and traffic diversion improvements. SR2S has been highly competitive with an average of 500 applications per round and over 2,000 total application submitted since its inception. Marin has been fortunate to receive four capital grants from this program for Fairfax, San Anselmo, Kentfield and Mill Valley totaling over $1.5 million. In addition, a companion measure, AB 775, sponsored by Assemblymember Parra will extend the sunset for SRTS to 2010. To find out more information and send letters of support go to www.transact.org or contact Charles Mason of the Surface Transportation Policy Project at cmason@transact.org

9. Sunshine Bicycle Center donates tools

Special thanks to Sunshine Bicycle Center of Fairfax for their generous donation of tools worth $70 toward the Safe Routes to Schools bike clubs and rodeos. Included in the package are five patch kits, three tire irons, four tubes of chain lube, and a floor pump. This will enable us to address any flat tires, tires with low air, or other simple problems on the children’s bikes that could prohibit their ability to participate in activities. Thanks to Martin Hansen, owner of Sunshine Bicycles for his generosity.

10. Featured School of the Month Rancho School, Novato

Rancho School Fourth grader J. J. Demski was the happy winner of a new bicycle at a drawing on Monday, December 15th. He won the bike by participating in Walk and Roll Wednesdays sponsored once a week by Rancho School’s Safe Routes to Schools parent team leaders. The weekly event was inspired by International Walk to School Day which was held on October 8, and Bike to School Day held last May.

At least 100 to 200 kids participate regularly by walking, biking, or carpooling to Rancho school every Wednesday. They were greeted by volunteer parents and students and handed a raffle ticket for a new bicycle and accessories worth up to $350 at Class Cycle. The prize was funded by the kind donations from Class Cycle, Novato Police Officers Association and school parents. The Wednesday morning traffic back-up of up to five blocks was reduced to usually less than one block. The kids loved it and enjoyed being out with their friends.

To ensure the children’s safety, parents Jeff and Charmaine Stevenson organized volunteer crossing guards trained by the police department and requested increased police presence both with motorcycle officers and bicycle officers. Then Mayor, Mike DiGiorgio and City Councilman John Mani helped as escorts and crossing guards on October 8th.

The Rancho team plans to continue the Walk and Roll to School Days when school resumes after the holidays and hope to involve additional schools. For more information call 883-9237.