Dear Editor,
On November 8, 2011 Nancy Goldberg will get my vote for Culver City Unified School District School Board. She “Believes that the students’ safety is first and foremost.”
Put another way in her mailed literature, “Protect our students, first and foremost”. This may seem like a simply statement but it is in my opinion an important issue. It was so important of an issue that back in 2008 I showed a video at a CCUSD School Board Meeting. A Los Angeles City Councilwoman had spearheaded a “School Safety Valet” program in North Hollywood. It was basically a curbside drop-off program to prevent people from double and triple parking around schools. It was a program to make it safer for children around schools and protect the neighborhood. The program was later expanded to 29 schools in the area. The cost for each school was around $500. The Police and Department of Transportation trained the volunteers. I figured it would be a no brainer for CCUSD to implement a similar program at ALL of the schools in the CCUSD. I figured it would be a win-win for the community. During the CCUSD meeting a representative from Congresswoman Watson’s office even gave his sympathy to a School Board Member whose son had been hit by a car near school. Do all the CCUSD schools have school safety valets after over 3 years? No. Are cars illegally parked around schools today? Yes.
When I showed the video again last month I got laughs from the Board when the video showed an on going problem around our schools. The video showed eight cars double-parked. They snickered when I showed a car triple parked. Nancy Goldberg, who was seated in the audience near where I was standing at the podium, said this is important.
Who is my second vote? Well I have a second and even third choice, but I am not voting my second vote. Why am I going to only vote for one person? Because I think it is very important that Nancy Goldberg wins one of the seats. One of my other possible choices had an opportunity to establish a school safety valet program, at all schools, as an active CCUSD School Board Member, working with the other members. My other possible choice had an opportunity to establish a school safety valet program in her leadership role as the President, Culver City Council of PTA’s. Neither of them chose to do the right thing.
Cary Anderson
I am in agreement with Mr. Anderson on all counts.
I, too, have a second choice but will be casting only one vote tomorrow, and it will be for Nancy Goldberg.
I am also going to follow Mr. Anderson’s and Ms. Kinnon’s lead and do a “bullet” vote for Nancy. I live a half-block from Elenda on Braddock, and it’s not just the double-parking that concerns me. It’s parents doing U-turns in the middle of Braddock or Elenda once they’ve got their own child. It’s drivers who seem to have no concept of right-of-way and charge the intersection at Braddock and Elenda with the crossing guard and students in it. It’s older students who ignore the crossing guard and cross the street wherever and whenever they want. It’s also the curious lack of “School Zone” traffic signs around the Elenda-Farragut complex, and adults and kids riding bicycles too and from school who ignore pedestrians on the sidewalks.
I know our budget issues are serious, but for too long, our Board has acted as though budget is the only issue they need to address.
Nancy, I hope you are reading.
Drop zones are a great idea, but they depend on volunteers from the school, parents who are willing to be there every day, rain or shine to open the doors and help the kids out safely. There is a drop zone at El Marino, and there should be one at every school. It is a great idea…but it is not a matter for the school board unless there is going to be paid workers employed by the district to do this work. Then it might be a school board issue. It is up to us parents and residents to not just watch the chaos around the schools, but to drive safely and not do anything that endangers children on their way to school. I am glad that Ms. Goldberg is in favor of safety, and I am sure that every member of the school board and the candidates running for office feel the same. Should more be done to make the area around the schools safer, yes, but that is a traffic safety issue that requires cooperation from the police department. Then there are inevitably angry parents who got tickets when dropping off their kids. When the police department made the traffic changes around the Middle School-Farragut campus it caused a lot of confusion. I still see people dropping of elementary children across Farragut and running across to the school. I still see middle and high school students ambling across the street without looking. Is this really a school board issue or a main reason to vote for one particular candidate?
Jamie–The issue is responsibility. The first level of responsibility is parents and students. It is the responsibility of the parents to not violate laws. It is setting a bad example at the least.
The second level of responsibility is the school district to set policy. It took an L.A. City Councilperson working with a school to solve their problem. What issue is more important then child safety? “I am glad that Ms. Goldberg is in favor of safety, and I am sure that every member of the school board and the candidates running for office feel the same”. Really? Believe me if my kid was hit by a car and I was on the School Board I would make it a priority. If I was President, Culver City Council of PTAs I would make it a priority. Can the Board not afford a $500 start up cost per school? Can the PTA not organize parent volunteers? Every Private School in Culver City operates with a C.U.P.(Conditional Use Permit). This requires the schools to have a mandatory program. Public Schools are a free for all. Are our tax dollar funded schools exempted from responsibility? In the Westwood area of Los Angeles a school started a School Safety Valet program after a 9-year-old boy was hit and killed by a car. Besides planting a tree on campus in his memory, they actually took action by starting a School Safety Valet program so that another child would not be killed. The Fourth Grader who died in 1991 would be almost 30 years old today. Think about it. Does it take a tragedy to wake people up?
The third and last level of responsibility should be CCPD to enforce the irresponsibility of parents, students(level 1) and the School Board(level 2). Goldberg’s wiliness to be a responsible person is why I voted for her.
If it is not the School Board’s responsibility to make sure that school sites, police (who oversee the overstretched crossing guards), school security and the public work together to maximize traffic safety around schools, whose is it? Yes, this one of many good reasons that add up to the choice of one candidate over the others. You simply can’t teach dead and hospitalized children.
Like I said, the School Board has acted for too long as though budget issues were its only responsibility. Goldberg and Chardiet had more than lip service for the many other issues that determine the quality of education in a district.