{"id":26726,"date":"2020-06-11T23:27:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T03:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26726"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:13:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:13:42","slug":"school-board-should-chip-in-on-student-safety-at-aurora-heights-p-s-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/school-board-should-chip-in-on-student-safety-at-aurora-heights-p-s-council\/","title":{"rendered":"School board should chip in on student safety at Aurora Heights P.S.: Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The York Region District School Board should step up to\nthe plate to help fund new measures designed to protect the safety of students\nwalking to and from Aurora Heights Public School, according to Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting at the Committee level last week, local lawmakers\ngave a tentative green light to several safety proposals stemming from a\nworking group tasked with reviewing pedestrian safety for students and families\nin the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These recommendations include a layby lane on the east\nside of Tecumseh Drive along the frontage of Aurora Heights Public School and\nprohibition of parking at all times on the south and east sides of Kitimat\nCrescent near the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should these new measures receive final approval at\nCouncil at the end of this month, $125,000 for construction of the layby lane\nwill be included in Aurora\u2019s 2021 Capital Budget, but Council is hoping they\nwill have a partner in this endeavor in the local school board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I were to pick and choose the projects [outlined by\nthe working group], this is one I feel is going to solve the problem at hand\nwith the amount of children safely being dropped off at school,\u201d said\nCouncillor Rachel Gilliland voicing her support for the layby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The layby was also supported by Councillor John Gallo,\nbut not necessarily the funding model suggested by staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can see where there\u2019s an argument that kids going to\nthat school are Aurora residents, they are our kids and we have an obligation\nto make sure they are safe [but] I don\u2019t know where the line is drawn in terms\nof responsibility for this type of project,\u201d said Councillor Gallo of the\nlayby. \u201cWe don\u2019t build schools and while obviously we are in favour of safe\ntransportation of our children to the schools, where does the responsibility\nlie? Does it lie [with] the school boards to make sure their school grounds are\nsafe, or is it incumbent upon us? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember doing something like this before. I\ndon\u2019t remember paying for something like this before. I am just throwing it out\nthere that I think it is a great idea and it should be done. I just don\u2019t know\nwhether it is our responsibility to do it, I don\u2019t know whether it is our\ntaxpayers\u2019 responsibility to pay for this. We don\u2019t build schools; it is the\nBoard\u2019s responsibility to make sure their schools are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Councillor Gallo said he was concerned that footing\nthe full bill could set a precedent for Aurora, Councillor Wendy Gaertner\noffered a similar view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur responsibility is to take care of the children and\nto make sure they\u2019re safe, but I don\u2019t think it is our responsibility to be\ndoing this financially,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just does not sit well. We\u2019re all tight\nfor money.  We\u2019re asking all the\nresidents of the Town to take over this responsibility. It belongs to the\nschool board and it is up to the school board to improve the safety of their\nschools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas said he too was concerned about setting\na precedent with the school board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the schools that have been built a long time ago have probably fallen into some similar situation,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, what is going to happen is we\u2019re going to start paying for laybys. At minimum, the conversation shouldn\u2019t even begin unless it is looking at splitting the costs. That should be the starting point, and let\u2019s work towards where we go from there. It shouldn\u2019t be the Town that\u2019s on the hook for full construction costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The York Region District School Board should step up to the plate to help fund new measures designed to protect the safety of students walking to and from Aurora Heights Public School, according to Council. Meeting at the Committee level last week, local lawmakers gave a tentative green light to several safety proposals stemming from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6X4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 19:26:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}