Safe Routes to School E-News
Issue #44: August 2009
Safe Routes to School E-News is a monthly email newsletter published by the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, www.saferoutespartnership.org, a growing national network of hundreds of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and professional groups that are working to set goals, share best practices, secure funding, and provide detailed policy input to implementing agencies for advancing the Safe Routes to School national movement.
To receive future issues of E-News, email info@saferoutespartnership.org.
In this issue:
1. Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s Federal Update
Contact your Members of Congress in August; work ahead for September
2. Safe Routes to School National Conference in Portland, OR
Check out the Partnership’s booth and sessions where we are presenting!
3. Partnership Issues July 2009 State of the States
See how your state is progressing in awarding/obligating SRTS funds
4. The Partnership Hires an Administrative Associate
Please help us welcome Kelechi Nwosu as our newest staff member
5. Exciting New Reports Released This Summer
Show deepening support nationwide for SRTS
6. Parks and Recreation Article on Schoolyards as Playgrounds
Navigating through the joint use process
7. NPLAN Provides Legal Tools to Create Joint Use Agreements
Check out their website for more information on these valuable resources
8. Highlighting Local SRTS Successes in Congressional Meetings
Contact kristin@saferoutespartnership.org if you want to be included
9. Wyoming’s Safe Routes to School Program Is Thriving
Five years of SRTS funding awarded in Wyoming
10. SRTS News Throughout the Country
Local and state SRTS program news links
1. Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s Federal Update
Contact your Members of Congress in August; work ahead for September
Congress is home for the August work period, a time for Members of Congress to meet with their constituents, so now is the time to talk with your Members of Congress about Safe Routes to School. Please consider one or more of the following key actions: set up a meeting with your Senators or Representatives in the district in August, invite your Members to a SRTS kick-off event in September, attend a town hall meeting, or write a letter from your organization or yourself on behalf of Safe Routes to School.
Details on how to move forward on each of these items—including how to contact your Members, sample letters, and planning tools—are all available on our website. Please share your letters, events, and meetings with Margo Pedroso, Deputy Director of the Partnership at margo@saferoutespartnership.org. She can also help you plan an event or district meeting.
Whether you are meeting in person, hosting a Member at an event, or sending a letter, it’s important for Members of Congress to understand how Safe Routes to School is making communities safer for children to walk and bicycle and improving health and the environment. Your story of what’s happening in your community can help illustrate that message. Once you’ve conveyed the benefits of SRTS, it’s time to “make the ask.”
- For Senators, ask him or her to co-sponsor of S. 1156, the Safe Routes to School Program Reauthorization Act. We are now up to 11 co-sponsors (Sens. Cardin (D-MD), Lincoln (D-AR), and Snowe (R-ME) are new additions)—and, we need your two Senators on board too.
- For Representatives, ask him or her to support the Safe Routes to School provisions within the House’s Surface Transportation Authorization Act, which was unveiled in July.
Once the district work period is over after Labor Day, Congress will reconvene. There are a number of priorities due for further consideration in September, including:
- Transportation bill: Both the House and Senate have passed a bill that fixes the funding shortfall for current transportation programs until the end of September 2009. The current transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, expires at the end of September—but there is disagreement about how to proceed. The Senate has already moved forward on legislation that would extend the current transportation bill another 18 months (funding all programs, including SRTS, at the FY2009 levels until March 2011). The House prefers to focus on passing a full transportation bill instead of a long-term extension. The House and Senate will have to resolve their differences and decide on a way forward for the next transportation bill before the end of September.
- Climate bill: In June, the House passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Since then, the Senate has held several hearings on the climate bill, including on the role transportation plays in greenhouse gas emissions. Several members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are publicly supportive of providing sufficient climate funding for green transportation alternatives like public transit and bicycle/pedestrian networks. The numerous Senate committees who have jurisdiction over the climate bill are expected to release draft climate legislation and proceed with consideration in September.
2. Safe Routes to School National Conference in Portland, OR
Check out the Partnership’s booth and sessions where we are presenting!
Registration is officially closed for the Safe Routes to School National Conference August 19-21, 2009 in beautiful, bicycle-friendly Portland, Oregon, with 500 people already registered. The only remaining opportunity to register will be as a walk in on Tuesday, August 18 or Wednesday, August 19 for $450.
The Partnership will have a booth in the conference exhibit area with our new display banners, and we invite you to stop by to meet our staff and pick up information that will be useful to your SRTS work. We also have several sessions that we invite you to check out:
- August 19 – 2-3:30pm - “Taking it to the Next Level with a Statewide Center for SRTS”
- August 19 – 4-5:30pm - “The SRTS National Partnership's Local Schools Project: Preliminary Results”
- August 20 – 10-11:30am - “California: Advancing SRTS Programs through Coordination of National, State, and Local Efforts” or “Going Green With Safe Routes to School”
- August 20 – 4-5:30pm - “SRTS: A Tool for Advancing the Healthy People in Healthy Places Agenda in Low-income Communities”
- August 21 – 10-11:30am - “Partnering with Transit: Building Synergy with your School Transportation Director”
3. Partnership Issues July 2009 State of the States
See how your state is progressing in awarding/obligating SRTS funds
Each quarter, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership issues a “State of the States” to track the movement of each state Department of Transportation (DOT) in awarding and obligating federal Safe Routes to School funds. The July 2009 State of the States Chart reveals that over the last quarter (April to June 2009), DOTs have awarded close to$40 million in Safe Routes to School awards and have obligated more than $40 million to allow already-awarded projects to move forward. This shows a great deal of momentum—states awarded nearly double and obligated nearly quadruple the funds awarded and obligated during the prior quarter. Overall, approximately 66% of the overall funds have been awarded and 32% have been obligated.
4. The Partnership Hires an Administrative Associate
Please help us welcome Kelechi Nwosu as our newest staff member
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership welcomes Kelechi Nwosu as our new Administrative Associate. As Administrative Associate, Kelechi is providing administrative, website management, and program implementation support for the Partnership. Additionally, she will be communicating with advocates, governmental officials, and other SRTS stakeholders as well as providing research assistance.
Prior to joining the Partnership, Kelechi was employed by the Georgia Department of Transportation as the State SRTS Coordinator. Accordingly, Kelechi has much experience and enthusiasm regarding Safe Routes to School.
Kelechi is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Public Policy from the Joint PhD program at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University. She received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University, and a Masters in Public Administration from Georgia State University. Kelechi hopes to further the Partnership’s cause through research on health policies and how these policies can better support minority and low-income communities. For her full bio and contact information, click here.
5. Exciting New Reports Released This Summer
Show deepening support nationwide for SRTS
There are several exciting new reports that were released in July that show deepening support nationwide for Safe Routes to School.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release an MMWR report with 24 Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States. Several of the strategies focus on key issues related to Safe Routes to School including school siting, walking, bicycling, and complete streets.
- The July/August issue of the Federal Highway Administration’s magazine, Public Roads, included a big story – “Safe Routes to School—Making a Big Difference Via Small Steps”, featuring how all 50 states and DC are participating and more than 5,200 schools are already being served. The story includes lots of great case studies from throughout the country.
- PolicyLink and the Prevention Institute released the Transportation Prescription commissioned by the Convergence Partnership which includes a forward by Congressman Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. This policy guide includes great statistics and analyzes the intersection of transportation, health, and equity. It provides key policy and program recommendations that can improve health outcomes in vulnerable communities, create economic opportunity, and enhance environmental quality.
6. Parks and Recreation Article on Schoolyards as Playgrounds
Navigating through the joint use process
An August article in the National Parks and Recreation magazine delves deeper into the practice of converting schoolyards to playgrounds and the joint use process that is involved. The story of how urban park and recreation departments developed sustainable partnerships working with departments of education, community associations, nonprofit groups, and other governmental agencies to convert
“schoolyards into playgrounds” is a fascinating tale of how powerful agencies have learned to cooperate and make better use of taxpayer funds for the public they serve. Successful collaborations in cities such as New York and Los Angeles can serve as models for not just densely populated urban areas, but for communities anywhere in the country. To read the full article, click here.
7. NPLAN Provides Legal Tools to Create Joint Use Agreements
Check out their website for more information on these valuable resources
The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) has prepared legal tools – including fact sheets, a state law guide, checklists, liability risks, model joint use agreements, and more - to assist communities in forming joint use agreements between school districts and cities.
Many communities lack safe, adequate places for children and their families to exercise and play. Schools might have a variety of recreational facilities —gymnasiums, playgrounds, fields, courts, tracks —but many districts close their property to the public after school hours because of concerns about costs, vandalism, security, maintenance, and liability in the event of injury.
Most states currently have laws that encourage or even require schools to open their facilities to the community for recreation or other civic uses. Nonetheless, school officials may be reluctant to do so, cautious about the expense in times of increasingly tight budgets.
The good news is that city, county, and town governments can partner with school districts through what are known as joint use agreements to address these concerns. A joint use agreement is a formal agreement between two separate government entities— often a school district and a city or county—setting forth the terms and conditions for the shared use of public property. Check the new valuable NPLAN resources on their website.
8. Highlighting Local SRTS Successes in Congressional Meetings
Contact kristin@saferoutespartnership.org if you want to be included
The Partnership has been highlighting local communities and the success of SRTS advocates in these communities by creating “Safe Routes to School in Action” profiles. We use these profiles to highlight the local impact of SRTS when meeting with Members of Congress, and also feature them on our website’s state pages as success stories. We also hope to feature these local communities in future reports. Take a look at some of the communities we have profiled recently, and contact Kristin Gavin at kristin@saferoutespartnership.org if you want to be included.
Kent County, Maryland
Takoma Park, Maryland
Shelby, Montana
Netcong, New Jersey
City of Oregon, Ohio
Borough of Mt. Penn, Pennsylvania
Burlington, Wyoming
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Thermopolis, Wyoming
9. Wyoming’s Safe Routes to School Program Is Thriving
Five years of SRTS funding awarded in Wyoming
The popularity of the SRTS program is ever increasing in the State of Wyoming. The Wyoming SRTS Advisory Committee represents one of the only states to have awarded all five years of infrastructure funding, and continues to award grants for SRTS plans and non-infrastructure projects on an ongoing basis.
A vital component of Wyoming’s work includes the number of comprehensive SRTS plans awarded over the life of the program. The Advisory Committee is now requiring communities to have established SRTS plans in place prior to receiving infrastructure awards. These plans enable communities to better prioritize and justify SRTS projects, and show the Advisory Committee a project’s construction progress prior to being selected for additional infrastructure funding. For more information on Wyoming’s SRTS program, please contact Wyoming SRTS Coordinator, Sara Janes at Sara.Janes@dot.state.wy.us or (307) 777-3938.
10. SRTS News Throughout the Country
Local and state SRTS program news links
Safe Routes to School news around the country keeps growing! Updated regularly, see our new SRTS in the News media center for the latest in local, state, and national SRTS news.
Help Grow the Partnership!
Joining the Partnership is free. Please encourage other organizations, schools, businesses, and government agencies to join the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
Funding for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership has been generously provided by Bikes Belong Coalition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kaiser Permanente, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SRAM Cycling Fund, and partner affiliates.
For more information, contact:
Brooke Driesse, Communications Manager
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
brooke@saferoutespartnership.org
www.saferoutespartnership.org
(619) 272-0097