By Greg Fry

Parents at Westmount Elementary raise red flag following ‘near miss’

Jan 29, 2018 | 2:57 PM

KAMLOOPS — A “near miss” involving a student at Westmount Elementary School in Kamloops has parents speaking out.

Leanna Werely — a mother of two including a five year old kindergarten student at the school — co-wrote a letter to school officials over the weekend following an incident where a boy was nearly hit by a vehicle last week.

She told CFJC Today it’s a symptom of overcrowding at the school, noting the near-accident occurred in “a very tight space.”

“There’s one road in and out to that school and that road also accesses a residential street on a cul-de-sac,” Werely said.

“The… school is 140 per cent (of capacity). 323 students and add that to parents. Westysyde has expanded to a four-lane road with no meridian and no proper crosswalk light. So, now we’re in a situation where they’re putting our children at risk, staff at risk, parents at risk, traffic and the residents because if there was an emergency on that road and somebody had a heart attack on that road, no emergency crews could access them. There’s no way emergency crews can get through 200 vehicles that pick up their kids everyday.”

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Werely says it’s not a new issue, noting parents have been pushing it for the past nine years. Adding to her frustration is the fact the Board of Education opted not to reopen the neighbouring Westsyde Elementary School at a meeting last month.

She says a Facebook page she created Sunday night has really struck a chord noting its already got over 100 comments from concerned parents.

Superintendent of Schools for School District 73 Alison Sidow says the district is aware of the challenges at the location and is acting.

“As a result of the concerns that were outlined in the letter and as well as our ongoing concerns, we have determined that it’s best at this point in time to work with the city to commission an independent traffic study.”

She says the study will provide recommendations that both parties can review with the city to find a permanent solution. In the meantime, Sidow says the district has asked the principal to review procedures and expectations with parents and notes the principal and staff will be made available on site to help properly manage traffic.

She expects the study will take at least a month to complete. Sidow adds the district isn’t blind to the challenges, noting it has worked with the city the last several years to implement changes.

As for the complaint about the school board’s decision not to reopen Westsyde Elementary last month, she had this to say:

“Yes, and I understand that frustration. We are very frustrated as well. We think that the best solution is an addition at Westmount. That’s in our capital plan, it has been for a number of years. The question is, do you bus kids eight kilometres, 10 to 15 minutes down a very busy road or do you wait for the addition? And the decision the board made based on the recommendations from staff was to wait before we had to made those extraordinary measures — reopen a school at a significant cost and bus kids out of their neighbourhood. That, to us, does not seem like a reasonable solution.”

But if they don’t receive funding for an addition to Westmount and are not satisfied that it will be built in a timely fashion, Sidow says they will have to look at other measures which may or may not include opening schools such as Westsyde Elementary.