We need your help! Please encourage the Olympia School Board to include traffic safety improvements at Roosevelt Elementary in any capital facilities bond or levy measure they put on the ballot next year.

Olympia School District is considering asking our community to vote on a levy or bond measure to fund capital improvements and construction projects at Olympia schools in 2010. The options being considered are: Option A: A two-year $15 million capital levy.  This option does not include traffic safety improvements to Roosevelt. These safety improvements (described below) will cost less than $110,000—less than 1 percent of the total levy amount. Option B (preferred by the Facilities Advisory Committee): A six-year $65 million construction bond. This option includes Roosevelt traffic safety improvements as part of an overall modernization of the school. Option C: A ten-year $165 million construction bond. This option includes all of the projects in Option B as well as a new school and replacement of the John Rogers facility.

What: Please tell OSD that traffic safety improvements at Roosevelt should be included in whatever capital facilities bond or levy measure they decide to put on the ballot. Sample letter When: OSD will meet to discuss funding options on Dec. 7 and Dec. 14. If possible, please send your comments before the School Board holds a study session on the bond/levy proposal on Monday, December 7. Who/Where: Send your written comments to: Peter Rex, OSD's Communications Director Frank Wilson, member of the OSD Board of Directors from our neighborhood and former Roosevelt parent Olympia School District, 1113 Legion Way SE, Olympia, WA 98501

The School Board is expected to make a decision before the end of the year on whether to adopt the FAC’s recommendation or to choose another option to place on the ballot next year. We need your help to make sure the Roosevelt traffic safety improvements are included in whatever bond or levy measure the School Board chooses to place on the ballot in 2010.   

Please review information about these proposed bond and levy options and the proposed traffic safety improvements. If you’d like to lend your support to this effort to make it safer for Roosevelt students to walk and bike to school,  you can use this sample letter or craft your own message to the School Board (addresses provided in the yellow box, above).

Roosevelt Traffic Safety Improvements

Since 2005, the Northeast Neighborhood Association has been working with Roosevelt parents, staff, and neighbors to identify traffic safety concerns at the school. People are particularly concerned about:

	Congestion as cars and buses try to enter the parking lot where Bethel Street dead-ends at the school driveway. Cars back up into the intersection when they wait for students to cross the driveway to reach the school entrance, resulting in excessive idling and frustration.
	Danger to pedestrians, bike riders, and drivers because there is not a dedicated curb-side drop-off area. The only curbside area where students can safely be let out of their parents' cars is the fire lane, which currently also serves as the bus drop-off/pick-up area.

These conditions make it dangerous for pedestrians and bike riders to reach the school entrance, and make it very frustrating for school families as well as neighbors who have to get through the school congestion as they pass through the neighborhood. Many people who live within 1/2 mile of the school opt to drive their kids to school everyday rather than allow their kids to run the gauntlet at the school entrance.

We have an opportunity to fix this problem before someone gets hurt

NENA worked with a team that included Roosevelt principal Mr. Spatola-Knoll, Olympia School District administrators, a City traffic engineer, and neighborhood members to come up with a plan to address these problems.  After several meetings and after soliciting feedback from the Roosevelt community and the neighborhood, the team came up with a low-cost set of improvements that more fully meets current national and state standards for school drop-off and parking lot design and would make it much safer for students to walk and bike to school. The improvements include:

	Moving the entrance to the school approximately 100 feet east on San Francisco to alleviate congestion through the Bethel-SF intersection.
	Building a dedicated parent drop-off area that is two lanes wide so parents can pull in and safely drop their kids off without having to back up. This lane would also be accessible to emergency vehicles.
	Building a curbed sidewalk through the parking lot to connect the sidewalk on San Francisco to the school entrance so kids and bike riders do not have to cross parent car or school bus traffic.
	Creating a dedicated staff and visitor parking lot, accessible from the existing driveway on Garrison.

This Roosevelt traffic safety improvement project is shovel ready

NENA used funds from a Healthy Steps/Active Communities grant from the Thurston County Department of Health and Human Services to hire local engineering firm Parametrix to develop engineering drawings and cost estimates for the project. Parametix estimates that finalizing the design and constructing the improvements would cost less than $110,000. Parametrix’s design has received initial approval from the:

	OSD Administration
	City of Olympia’s Public Works, Planning and Fire departments
	Roosevelt School staff

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