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Local Government Commission

Schools

 

Executive Summary

Without question, education is a critical component of a livable community; the quality of a community's schools is often a key component of its attractiveness to potential residents. How children travel to and from school and where schools are located are two significant issues related to healthy community design.

Safe Routes to School

Not so long ago, a vast majority of children routinely roamed their neighborhoods on foot or bicycle almost as a rite of passage. Today, a new generation of moms and dads chauffeur their kids to nearly all their activities, fearing for their children's safety on streets due to perceived dangers from both crime and traffic. The common sight of children walking and cycling has vanished in many communities. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (link: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/school_travel.pdf), now less than 15% of all trips to and from school are by foot or bicycle. With fewer kids on foot, there are more cars on the road. Parents driving their children to school make up 20-30% of the morning commute traffic. The more the traffic increases, the more parents decide it is unsafe for their children to walk, adding even more cars to the morning chaos.

There is a way to break the cycle through a movement that focuses on getting kids back on their feet and bikes again. Parent and neighborhood groups, school and local officials, law enforcement officers and traffic engineers are working together to make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists along heavily traveled routes to school, while encouraging both parents and their kids to take advantage of the many benefits of getting around on foot or by bike. With transportation funding available specifically for this purpose, communities all across the country are discovering the many benefits of providing "Safe Routes to Schools."

State and federal funding has been used to construct new bicycle lanes, pathways, and sidewalks, as well as to launch Safe Routes to School programs and campaigns. The most successful SRTS programs incorporate evaluation, education, encouragement, engineering, and enforcement. It is also crucial to build partnerships between community and school stakeholders such as educators, parents, students, elected officials, engineers, city/county planners and engineers, business and community leaders, health officials, and bicycle and pedestrian advocates.

LGC Resources

Before Safe Routes to School was a nationally recognized and funded program, California legislation supported efforts around the state to make it easier and safer to walk and bicycle to school. Produced in 2000, a four-page fact sheet on Safe Routes to School programs and legislation is available on our web site in PDF format. Also see our "Transportation Tools to Improve Children's Health and Mobility" fact sheet, produced in 2002 as an education piece for transportation engineers and other community stakeholders.

Other Resources
  1. Safe Routes to School National Partnership (www.saferoutespartnership.org)
  2. National Center for Safe Routes to School (www.saferoutesinfo.org)
  3. California Department of Public Health (www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/injviosaf/Pages/SafeRoutestoSchool.aspx)

School Siting

The deterioration of many schools in established communities is frequently cited as a primary reason for many families’ flight to the suburbs. At the same time, modern trends in the size and location of public schools have deemphasized neighborhood schools in favor of larger schools often situated on the fringe of or completely separated from a community, in a phenomenon critics call "school sprawl.''

In addition to impacting where people choose to live, these changes have reduced students’ ability to safely walk or bicycle to school. It has also compromised the anchor function that schools may provide for surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the opportunity for off-hours, auxiliary use of gymnasiums, playing fields and other school facilities. In addition, school sprawl threatens the preservation of historic community buildings that help constitute community identity and history. Even the quality of education may suffer.

There are a number of complicated factors involved, including state education programming mandates, additional safety requirements in place to protect children, a lack of designated funding for school planning, and barriers to collaborating with local government.  States, regions, and communities can address the issues by dialoguing with state and local education leaders, by funding and supporting Safe Routes to School programs, and by collaborating early with school district leadership on school siting.  Local governments and school districts are also initiating joint-use agreements that make the best use of a community’s limited resources.

Issues related to school siting and education can often elicit a strong response. However, by working together, school districts, local governments and residents can break down barriers and create healthy and sustainable communities. Contact the Local Government Commission for more information on collaborative strategies related to school siting and land use, as well information on creating safe routes to school.

LGC Resources

The Local Government Commission is a member of the Ad-Hoc Coalition on Healthy School Siting, which developed school siting recommendations that were submitted to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell in 2008 and follow-up detailed recommendations in 2009. The LGC and its partners are continuing their discussion with the Department of Education on how healthy school siting can support a world class educational system. Brief: Revising CDE School Siting Policy Documents (PDF) and Detailed Recommendations (PDF)

In May 2008, the Local Government Commission hosted the Forum on School Siting Collaboration in Sacramento, bringing together school district representatives, local government staff and other key stakeholders. The participants educated each other about their role in the process and identified promising strategies for a more systematic school siting process at the local level. The forum report addresses the outcomes, which have implications for school siting beyond the Sacramento region. Summary Report - Forum on School Siting Collaboration in Sacramento: Using a Slowdown to Get Ahead (PDF, 560 KB)

The Local Government Commission partnered with the National Association of Realtors (TM) to create New Schools for Older Neighborhoods: Strategies for Building Our Communities' Most Important Assets (PDF, 2.9 MB), which profiles five diverse communities, that have successfully incorporated new schools into older neighborhoods.

The LGC’s Ahwahnee Principles for Smart Economic Development guidebook offers a chapter on the role of education in a sustainable community. It asserts that "human resources are so valuable, especially in the information age, [that] communities should provide lifelong skills and learning opportunities by investing in excellent schools, post-secondary institutions, and opportunities for continuous education and training available to all." This chapter chronicles successful school partnerships and training programs in California. [Go to guidebook]

The LGC has a fact sheet on how local government and school districts can work together to help ensure that children are healthy and ready to learn: Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities

Other Resources

The National Trust for Historic Preservation website has a number of resources related to supporting community-centered schools, including Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School and the follow-up Helping Johnny Walk to School. http://www.nthp.org/issues/schools/index.html.