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Board considers formal rubric and traffic-safety committee to evaluate hazardous routes and make busing recommendations
Summary
The board reviewed proposed procedures to move hazardous-route identification and decisions into the transportation policy series, discussed a district traffic-safety committee that would include Provo City engineering representation, and considered an April notification deadline if bus service changes are recommended.
Provo — At its Jan. 14 study session the Provo School District Board of Education discussed changes to how the district identifies hazardous walking and biking routes and whether to create a district traffic-safety committee to review school community council recommendations and make busing decisions.
Nut graf: The board’s policy committee has proposed moving route-hazard guidance from the school community council procedure to the transportation policy series and creating a traffic-safety committee — including district transportation staff and a Provo City engineering representative — to inspect sites, consult on infrastructure, assess student counts and recommend whether district-funded busing is required.
Jared (director-level staff) explained that the draft procedure creates a pathway: a school community council identifies a hazardous route; the district traffic-safety committee would evaluate the site using a set of criteria, may inspect the location (using site visits or street-view tools), consult with Provo City Engineering on planned infrastructure fixes, estimate the number of students affected, and determine the cost of providing district transportation if a hazardous-route designation is warranted.
Board members discussed committee membership. The draft envisions the district transportation director, the superintendent (or designee), one or two district administrators and a Provo City engineering representative (identified in the meeting as “Vern”) as members. The board discussed whether to include a board member on the traffic-safety committee and concluded the committee’s role is advisory — it would recommend hazardous-route designations for board approval.
The group also discussed timelines and notice: a proposed April deadline for notifying families if bus service will be discontinued was debated; members asked staff to consider whether an earlier notification is feasible and said school community councils usually submit safe-route maps and recommendations in late November or December, which allows the district time to consult the city and make recommendations.
Ending: Staff will refine the rubric and committee membership language, confirm consultation processes with Provo City Engineering and return with a revised draft procedure. The board signaled support for formalizing the evaluation process and noted that recommendations to remove existing hazardous routes should include ample notice to affected families.
