Timothy Rd Elementary observes Int'l Walk to School Day

From the ABH:

Each year schools across the country organize a Walk to School Day to promote physical activity, identify areas in the community that need safety improvements and reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

As a youngster, Okech walked five miles each way to get to his school in Kenya. Before Wednesday, Okech's daughters didn't walk to school often, though they live less than a mile from Timothy Road Elementary.

"Walking's good, but I find we're becoming more Americanized now because we're like, 'Oh, it's a short distance. well, let's jump in the car and drive,' " Okech said. "It's not good."

This year, the Timothy PTA - led by Heesacker - created a Safe Routes to School committee to organize monthly walks to school to ease more students and parents into the practice, while advocating for more crosswalks and crosswalk lights to make the trip safer. The first came Wednesday, but others are scheduled every month through April.

And tonight, the Clarke County Board of Education plans to approve a seven-school Safe Routes to School plan that asks the Athens-Clarke government for more crosswalks and signs, caution lights and sidewalks.

The county received $110,000 from the state Department of Education to fund part of one project envisioned in the school district plan - improving the Five Points intersection to benefit Barrow Elementary School students.

The intersection work - including raised crosswalks, countdown pedestrian lights and flashing signs that display cars' speeds - won't get started for another 15 months, according to David Clark, county transportation and public works director.

Kids plea for bus stop on Timothy Rd

The following letter to the editor was published in the ABH today:

Dear editor of the Athens Banner-Herald: Hi. We are third-graders at Timothy Road Elementary School. We are writing because we need a city bus stop in front of our school. There are a lot of events at Timothy that require parents to come. Without a city bus stop, some parents can't come. Sometimes their cars break down or they might not have a car. They might not have any money for gas.

If parents didn't come, then kids would be heartbroken. Kids also feel embarrassed when parents can't come because they don't have gas money or a car. If kids are sad and embarrassed, then they can't learn. Please help us learn by writing to the commissioners of Athens to convince them to put a city bus stop in front of Timothy. Please contact our school counselor, Ms. Saundra Arnold-Smith, if you have any questions.

Thank you for helping us.

Christopher Dellaria

Sylvia Primm

Brian Lee

• The writers are students in Kari Speakman's third-grade class.

It doesn't get more direct than that. Funding transit and providing a full range of transportation choices is fundamentally a social justice issue.