Safe Routes to Schools
Team Leader Newsletter
November 2003

1. Introduction

TEAM LEADER UPDATES

2. Safety Posters from Marin General
3. Insurance for Volunteer Crossing Guards
4. School Pools
5. Frequent Rider Miles Spring 2004
6. Website

GENERAL NEWS

7. 35 Marin Schools Walked to School October 8th
8. Ride n' Seek
9. Featured School of the Month

1. Introduction

Welcome to the premier issue of the Safe Routes to Schools Monthly Newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you informed of Safe Routes to Schools activities and updates and to share ideas and information. The newsletter will be divided into two parts. The first part is for Team Leaders only. It lets you know about new initiatives, updates on programs and flyers or posters coming your way. In the second part you'll get some highlights of the program that you can pass on to others in your school. In this newsletter we present the highlights from Walk to School Day, let you know how you can insure your volunteer crossing guards, and update you about our partnership with RIDES to assist you in forming School Pools and more. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please let us know and we will take you off the list.

TEAM LEADER UPDATES

2. Safety Posters from Marin General

The Six Simple Steps for Staying Safe and the Six Simple Steps for Saving Lives flyers are now available as 11x17 posters, thanks to Marin General Hospital Trauma Center's generous contribution. These flyers, distributed last year for Walk to School Day will be distributed to the schools to be placed on appropriate bulletin boards. These posters will remind both kids and parents of the important rules for everyone - cars, walkers, bikers alike - to share the road safely. The posters will be delivered to those schools who are officially in the program over the next week or so. They will be in a package with your name on it. If you are not officially in the program yet but want a poster contact Melanie@marinbike.org and we will send you one. There will be some extras so let us know if you want more. Posters can be viewed on our website at www.saferoutestoschools.org under forms.

3. Insurance for Volunteer Crossing Guards

The Marin Schools Insurance Authority, which insures all Marin County schools except Novato, has approved insurance benefits for Volunteer School Crossing Guards. To qualify, the school must also meet the criteria set up by the MSIA:

• Governing board resolution (provided by MSIA)
• Superintendent/designee shall approve and keep files of each individual volunteer school crossing guard
• Volunteers must be 21 years of age or older
• Program must be under the supervision of a school district employee
• Volunteers must go through the approved AAA crossing Guard training (provided by Marin County Law Enforcement)
• Volunteers cannot receive compensation (this program is separate from any paid crossing guard program already existing)

Any school wishing to participate in this program should contact: wendi@marinbike.org for a package of the above materials.

4. School Pools

Many schools have expressed an interest in developing walking school buses, bike trains and carpools as part of their program. RIDES and SR2S have formed a partnership to assist schools in accomplishing these goals. RIDES is offering an on-line database for individual schools where parents can log on looking for carpool or walking partners. They will also provide a map with the location of students plotted on the map as a tool to show how many people live within their neighborhood. These maps are not address or name specific and therefore do not reveal private information to the public. However, the same program that creates the map can actually identify potential carpool/walking bus partners for interested participants. We are currently working on a package of materials for this program and will have these available in January. In the interim, you can still work with RIDES to initiate their database service. Contact wendi@marinbike.org for more information.

5. Frequent Rider Miles

Spring 2004 Trek Bicycles will once again be sponsoring our Frequent Rider Miles contest this spring. Bikes will be provided for every participating schools as well as other bike accessories. Heeding advice from our Team Leaders, we will be making more improvements to the contest this year. If you want to participate, you need to let us know by January 15. For more information on the contest go to www.saferoutestoschools.org under contests.

6. Website

We received feedback from a few schools that putting up the school name and information would need school approval. Therefore we are holding up on setting up pop-up pages for each school and are looking at other ways to serve our schools better on our local page. We can still offer pop-up pages for schools that want them with a optional link to their school website. If you want this, let us know and we will work out the copy.

GENERAL NEWS

7. 35 Marin Schools Walked to School October 8th

Marin had the best participation ever with thirty five schools participating in International Walk (and Roll) to School Day. Some schools had as high as 85 and 95% participation. Many schools are holding regular Walk and Roll to School Days some monthly, and some weekly.

Here are some highlights:

Vallecito, San Rafael: Our event was funtastic~ I counted three cars in the parking lot! I also noticed that hardly anyone was dropped off by car.

Bahia Vista , San Rafael: Over 200 students received zipper pulls. I'd say a combined total of 50 participated in the formal "Walk", complete with balloons, signs, Mayor and Officer Bean, including four teachers, four BVFC staff members, BV's principal and about 10 parents. Many other students walked on their own that day.

Glenwood , San Rafael: Our walk went really well we had over 200 walkers. I got quite a bit donated for our event: water, energy bars, oranges and apples and prizes (books,posters, stuffed animals, movie passes) for our walk to school raffle.

Manor, Fairfax: We had 176 walkers, 90 bikers totaling 266 out of 316 or 84%. The top class was a 4/5 with 100%. Everything went smoothly and everyone had fun. We had seven staging areas where we distributed balloons and signs. Fairfax police were out. The Pack 7 Boy scouts again gave away homemade sugar cookies (well, not my first choice, but they like to do it) and we gave away apple juice and zipper pulls.

Ross School, Ross: We think we might have had as many as 200 walking (2/3 of school)

Neil Cummins, Corte Madera: We had over 250 students sign in. We will be continuing to have every Walk and Roll Wednesdays and will do the Golden Sneaker Award contest.

St. Patricks, Larkspur: We will continue our Bike/Walk to School Days every Wednesday until Thanksgiving. We did have one of our teachers bike to school. Also, we had one family from Mill Valley that biked all the way to Larkspur."

Tam Valley, Mill Valley: What a wonderful day for all! It exceeded all of my expectations and I am still beaming!! It looks like we got approximately 240 out of 280 95%?(5th graders were gone)

Parents comments:

• "It was easier than I thought"
• "I'll lead walking school busses"
• "I'll be a crossing guard."
• "It was easier than I thought"
• "I loved it"
• "Just like when I was a kid"
• "Great for the community"

Mill Valley Middle School, Mill Valley: We gave out 360 chocolate chip cookies. At least 90 bikes, the others walked, skateboarded, scootered or carpooled. We had about 15 students--6th and 7th graders, holding up banners and signs at the front of the school/cheering.

Marin Horizon, Mill Valley: We gave away zipper pulls and share the road buttons. We had a successful day with approximately 60 student participants and many parents + sheriff's escort.

Rancho, Novato: International Bike and Walk to School Day was a great success. The kids enjoyed it and the Wednesday morning traffic back up was almost eliminated. It was so successful that we will do it every Wednesday morning, weather permitting. The incentive will be a lottery ticket each time a child walks, rides or carpools. The "Grand Prize" is a cool Class Cycle bicycle and helmet of the winner's choosing worth up to $350.

Hill Middle School, Novato: Of the 600+ students, it looked like we had at least a third to half the school walking and rolling in. Of the remainder, the majority seemed to be carpools

Our Lady of Loretto, Novato: I had nearly 15 parents that stayed and walked their children to school! It was wonderful. All in all, we had 58 children show-up and 15 adults. This was a VERY impressive turn-out considering it represents 21% of the entire student body! Not bad with nothing more than a pink-slip in the Friday folder. We also had several families walk from their own homes. Everyone had such a great time we are going to do another one in the Spring. . Since Wednesday, I have had 3 children and 1 parent join us everyday for a walk to school. They had so much fun on Wednesday they decided they wanted to do it everyday! My children and I have been charting our progress and we figure if we only miss on very rainy days, by the end of the school year we will have walked from Novato to Lake Tahoe!

Bel Aire, Tiburon: Out of 110 kids that were surveyed: 13 drove to school, compared to 45 that normally drive to school. 97 kids therefore walked, rode, scootered, carpooled or bused to school, compared to 65 kids that would normally do so.

Lagunitas School, San Geronimo: Crossing Guard, Mwanza counted about 50 or more children walking or biking. Principal/Superintendent Mary Butler feels the children are biking more, not just for the special event.

8. Ride n' Seek

Ride n' Seek, Safe Routes to Schools first rolling treasure hunt was rolled out on October 12 as the culmination of International Walk to School Week. Twenty-three teams explored the Ross Valley pathways in search of hidden treasures. The clues were a bit challenging but everyone had a good time and most everyone wants to return again next year. Heeding the advice of attendees we plan to create a third, "L'l Seekers" course next year for the younger children. Winners walked away with kayaking trips from Sea Trek and Tamal Saka, gift certificates from REI and Birkenstock, and light sets from Village Peddler. Thanks to our Sponsors - Schwinn, Marin General, Marin Scope, Woodland Markets, and Bank of Marin.

9. Featured School of the Month

Every month we will feature a success story from one of our schools. Please submit your stories for both this item in our e-newsletter, and to be included in our print newsletter coming out next March. This month comes from Tasmin Pesso at Neil Cummins School:

Neil Cummins is a school of nearly 650 elementary students in a residential neighborhood, so it is easy to imagine the crush of students arriving at 8:20 in the morning. In order to encourage fewer car trips to the school, we are continuing "bike/walk" to school day every Wednesday through December. Participants are encouraged to bike, walk, roll, carpool or bus to school on those days and are encouraged to sign-in at one of two locations on campus where they receive a small gift such as a pencil, fancy eraser or novelty key chain. We collect the sign-ins sheets and are keeping a tally for the Golden Shoe Awards. We have three Golden Shoe Trophies, one each for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 as we felt the ability to participate increases with the age of the students. Also, we felt there would be greater incentive to participate if the students felt their classes had a good chance of winning. Well, imagine our surprise when a kindergarten class showed the highest level of participation in the whole school with 45% of the students participating! Second highest was a fifth grade class with 44.9%. The winning classes were announced by our principal during the morning PA announcements. These classes have the trophy in their classrooms for the month and received fruit Popsicles for the whole class. For the first Wednesday in November, a drizzly cold day, an impressive 150 students signed in including 15 students who had never participated before.