Opinion: CUSD should address school traffic

Tim Pond is a resident of El Granada

To the CSUD board:

It is now clear that the morning traffic problem can be mitigated by the reduction of school traffic.  Although the late start helps the situation, more can be done to alleviate the situation.  There are now six weeks left until the start of school and I would like to see consideration of the following ideas:

1.    Ban single and double occupant student drivers from the high school parking lot. If they want to give two students a ride, let them in. An academic requirement could also be established for parking permits.

2.    Give community service credit for those students to organize and participate in car pools.

3.    Get funding for one month of school busing.  It seems to me with all the emergency funding going out one of you guys could figure something out. (This must be easier than putting a highway trough a wetlands)

4.    Give physical education, elective, or community service credit for those students who ride their bikes to school.

5.    Letters to parents including names, times and numbers of potential car pool participants in their neighborhood.

6.    Delay the start of school by three weeks; add the time to the breaks and/or the end of the year. Pray to whatever god or tree you want that the repair work be completed on schedule.

7.    Get the commuter gas cards for students who car pool.  $40 is worth a lot more to a teenage driver and there is a greater potential for use with the common destination.

If we can use this situation to make our children socially aware of individual responsibility to the greater good, this whole affair will be transformed into a positive experience.  If we sit back in our cars and curse the traffic and let the leadership show an ineffectual response, we teach them an entirely different lesson. Please do something.

Tim Pond
El Granada