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Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
GMU Hokie
()
Date: November 17, 2009 05:04PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR2009111701665_pf.html
Everything old is new again
Fairfax officials want more kids to walk to school
By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:45 PM
Almost everyone has a grandparent who claims to have walked two miles to school every morning. Uphill. In the snow. Etc.
In Fairfax County, it could soon be your teenager trudging to school.
Hard times have a way of making old ideas seem new. With nothing but grim budgets ahead, some members of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors want their schools to save money on buses by encouraging more kids to walk to school, perhaps by moving back the boundaries for bus-riding eligibility.
It's an idea that has received more attention nationwide in recent years as a way to fight child obesity, reduce air pollution and ease traffic. It became especially popular when diesel fuel prices climbed to $4 a gallon a year ago, and it's popular now as local governments struggle through the worst recession in generations.
The cost of putting a school bus on the street is approximately equal to keeping a teacher on staff, says Linda P. Farbry, director of transportation for Fairfax public schools.
It also doesn't hurt that the widespread campaign -- especially the cleverly marketed "Walking School Bus" that encourages parents to coordinate neighborhood routes, don safety vests and share escort duty -- fits with the Baby Boomer habit of reviving practices of their childhood. An oft-quoted study found that in 1969, 41 percent of students walked or bicycled to school. By 2001, that figure had dropped to 13 percent.
Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee) has his own clear childhood memories.
"The schools do nothing to teach the benefits walking and biking to school," McKay said. "Somehow we got away from that, because when I went through the schools, they had presentations by police and others talking about the importance of walking and biking to school. If they're not being encouraged at school to do it, they're not going to do it."
McKay's suggestion that more kids walk also reflects the growing financial tensions between the School Board, which sets school policy and answers mostly to parents, and the Board of Supervisors, which controls school funding and answers mostly to taxpayers. McKay said that one of the biggest complaints he hears from constituents is about the number of half-full school buses they see.
Distance, safety concerns
But there are also plenty of reasons why bucking a 40-year trend of transporting kids to school is not going to be easy. Fairfax, which occupies 400 square miles, was built around the automobile.
Noreen C. McDonald, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who studies children's transportation habits, said walking has declined as distances to schools have increased, the percentage of working mothers has doubled, and attitudes about safety have changed.
"People have some very strong fears about leaving their children unsupervised," McDonald said.
Those fears were heightened recently with the reappearance of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had been kidnapped as an 11-year-old child while walking to her school bus stop in 1991. Last month, 7-year-old Somer Thompson, a first-grader from a Jacksonville, Fla., suburb, went missing during the 10-minute walk to school. Her body was later discovered in a Georgia landfill.
Susan Mosios, 47, a substitute teacher and jewelry designer who lives in Lorton, said she allows her 9-year-old son, Jacob, to walk to school, but only so far. "I'd like it to be like the old days when people could walk. But I worry about the people who could take the child," she said outside Laurel Hill Elementary School.
Fairfax County transportation officials understand the concern. "We're already having difficulty with parents who live inside these boundaries saying it's already too far for a kindergartner to walk a mile," Farbry said. "And we don't dispute that."
Under current regulations, elementary students ride the bus if they live more than a mile from school. Middle and senior high school students are entitled to use buses if they live more than 1 1/2 miles from school. About 10,000 students who live inside the boundaries are eligible for busing because they face particular safety hazards on their route, such as a major highway crossing, have disabilities or belong to special programs.
The district -- which buses about 64 percent of its student body -- has tried to squeeze savings on buses, often to the dismay of parents. It has eliminated some neighborhood stops and tweaked schools' daily schedules. Its goal is to cut its fleet by 90 buses, or about 8 percent, from 1,150 last year, Farbry said. So far, the district has taken 54 buses off the street.
Two years ago, the district also conducted a study that suggested extending the distance middle and high school students walk by half a mile would save $975,000 a year. Yet moving the boundaries back would probably cause more parents to drive their children, clogging neighborhood streets, Farbry said.
Montgomery County's School Board also explored a similar maneuver to save money, voting in June 2008 to grant officials emergency powers to extend the bus boundaries if fuel prices rose further. Brian Edwards, a schools spokesman, said no change has been necessary, and the school continues to use boundaries of 1 mile for elementary school children, 1 1/2 miles for middle school students and 2 miles for high school students.
Financial incentives
Since 2005, the federally funded National Center for Safe Routes to School has been encouraging more students to walk or bike. The program has given Virginia $13.3 million for traffic improvements and educational promotions. Maryland has received $10.3 million and the District about $5 million.
Evidence that the program is working has been mostly anecdotal, such as the Boulder elementary school that increased the percentage of walkers and bikers from 41 percent to 70 percent, or the Auburn, Wash., school district that cut its fleet of buses from six to one.
Fairfax is hunting for any savings in the face of a $315.6 million gap in fiscal 2010 that has forced County Executive Anthony H. Griffin to call for cuts of as much as 15 percent in some agencies.
More than 54 percent of the county's budget goes to its school district -- probably more when programs such as crossing guards in the police department are included.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon S. Bulova (D) supports the idea of having more children walk if they can do so safely and noted that considerable sums have been invested in trail and pedestrian improvements.
At Laurel Hill Elementary, for example, three-quarters of its population walks, largely because it's close to residential housing. Principal Suzie Montgomery said about 600 of 800 students walk.
"I think it fosters a sense of community," said Christine Morin, 39, a parent at Laurel Hill who has coordinated a fairly elaborate schedule with four other families to escort their children to school, including her second-graders, twins Ben and Chase.
On a cold blustery day last week, Morin gathered her gang at the school entrance and headed into a light rain.
"Everybody here? One, two, three, four, five, six -- okay," she said to herself, after negotiating an intersection with help from a crossing guard. Hidden under rain-whipped umbrellas, the six young walkers looked like walking backpacks as they headed down Western Hemlock Way into a subdivision so new it's still mostly treeless.
Meghan Wommack, 8, braving puddles in sneakers and a fuchsia slicker, said she liked walking, even in the rain, and certainly more than taking the bus, as they used to do. For one thing, she didn't have to bother with older kids.
Ben Morin, 8, agreed. "Walking is better because people on the bus were cursing all the time," he said.
Everything old is new again
Fairfax officials want more kids to walk to school
By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:45 PM
Almost everyone has a grandparent who claims to have walked two miles to school every morning. Uphill. In the snow. Etc.
In Fairfax County, it could soon be your teenager trudging to school.
Hard times have a way of making old ideas seem new. With nothing but grim budgets ahead, some members of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors want their schools to save money on buses by encouraging more kids to walk to school, perhaps by moving back the boundaries for bus-riding eligibility.
It's an idea that has received more attention nationwide in recent years as a way to fight child obesity, reduce air pollution and ease traffic. It became especially popular when diesel fuel prices climbed to $4 a gallon a year ago, and it's popular now as local governments struggle through the worst recession in generations.
The cost of putting a school bus on the street is approximately equal to keeping a teacher on staff, says Linda P. Farbry, director of transportation for Fairfax public schools.
It also doesn't hurt that the widespread campaign -- especially the cleverly marketed "Walking School Bus" that encourages parents to coordinate neighborhood routes, don safety vests and share escort duty -- fits with the Baby Boomer habit of reviving practices of their childhood. An oft-quoted study found that in 1969, 41 percent of students walked or bicycled to school. By 2001, that figure had dropped to 13 percent.
Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee) has his own clear childhood memories.
"The schools do nothing to teach the benefits walking and biking to school," McKay said. "Somehow we got away from that, because when I went through the schools, they had presentations by police and others talking about the importance of walking and biking to school. If they're not being encouraged at school to do it, they're not going to do it."
McKay's suggestion that more kids walk also reflects the growing financial tensions between the School Board, which sets school policy and answers mostly to parents, and the Board of Supervisors, which controls school funding and answers mostly to taxpayers. McKay said that one of the biggest complaints he hears from constituents is about the number of half-full school buses they see.
Distance, safety concerns
But there are also plenty of reasons why bucking a 40-year trend of transporting kids to school is not going to be easy. Fairfax, which occupies 400 square miles, was built around the automobile.
Noreen C. McDonald, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who studies children's transportation habits, said walking has declined as distances to schools have increased, the percentage of working mothers has doubled, and attitudes about safety have changed.
"People have some very strong fears about leaving their children unsupervised," McDonald said.
Those fears were heightened recently with the reappearance of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had been kidnapped as an 11-year-old child while walking to her school bus stop in 1991. Last month, 7-year-old Somer Thompson, a first-grader from a Jacksonville, Fla., suburb, went missing during the 10-minute walk to school. Her body was later discovered in a Georgia landfill.
Susan Mosios, 47, a substitute teacher and jewelry designer who lives in Lorton, said she allows her 9-year-old son, Jacob, to walk to school, but only so far. "I'd like it to be like the old days when people could walk. But I worry about the people who could take the child," she said outside Laurel Hill Elementary School.
Fairfax County transportation officials understand the concern. "We're already having difficulty with parents who live inside these boundaries saying it's already too far for a kindergartner to walk a mile," Farbry said. "And we don't dispute that."
Under current regulations, elementary students ride the bus if they live more than a mile from school. Middle and senior high school students are entitled to use buses if they live more than 1 1/2 miles from school. About 10,000 students who live inside the boundaries are eligible for busing because they face particular safety hazards on their route, such as a major highway crossing, have disabilities or belong to special programs.
The district -- which buses about 64 percent of its student body -- has tried to squeeze savings on buses, often to the dismay of parents. It has eliminated some neighborhood stops and tweaked schools' daily schedules. Its goal is to cut its fleet by 90 buses, or about 8 percent, from 1,150 last year, Farbry said. So far, the district has taken 54 buses off the street.
Two years ago, the district also conducted a study that suggested extending the distance middle and high school students walk by half a mile would save $975,000 a year. Yet moving the boundaries back would probably cause more parents to drive their children, clogging neighborhood streets, Farbry said.
Montgomery County's School Board also explored a similar maneuver to save money, voting in June 2008 to grant officials emergency powers to extend the bus boundaries if fuel prices rose further. Brian Edwards, a schools spokesman, said no change has been necessary, and the school continues to use boundaries of 1 mile for elementary school children, 1 1/2 miles for middle school students and 2 miles for high school students.
Financial incentives
Since 2005, the federally funded National Center for Safe Routes to School has been encouraging more students to walk or bike. The program has given Virginia $13.3 million for traffic improvements and educational promotions. Maryland has received $10.3 million and the District about $5 million.
Evidence that the program is working has been mostly anecdotal, such as the Boulder elementary school that increased the percentage of walkers and bikers from 41 percent to 70 percent, or the Auburn, Wash., school district that cut its fleet of buses from six to one.
Fairfax is hunting for any savings in the face of a $315.6 million gap in fiscal 2010 that has forced County Executive Anthony H. Griffin to call for cuts of as much as 15 percent in some agencies.
More than 54 percent of the county's budget goes to its school district -- probably more when programs such as crossing guards in the police department are included.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon S. Bulova (D) supports the idea of having more children walk if they can do so safely and noted that considerable sums have been invested in trail and pedestrian improvements.
At Laurel Hill Elementary, for example, three-quarters of its population walks, largely because it's close to residential housing. Principal Suzie Montgomery said about 600 of 800 students walk.
"I think it fosters a sense of community," said Christine Morin, 39, a parent at Laurel Hill who has coordinated a fairly elaborate schedule with four other families to escort their children to school, including her second-graders, twins Ben and Chase.
On a cold blustery day last week, Morin gathered her gang at the school entrance and headed into a light rain.
"Everybody here? One, two, three, four, five, six -- okay," she said to herself, after negotiating an intersection with help from a crossing guard. Hidden under rain-whipped umbrellas, the six young walkers looked like walking backpacks as they headed down Western Hemlock Way into a subdivision so new it's still mostly treeless.
Meghan Wommack, 8, braving puddles in sneakers and a fuchsia slicker, said she liked walking, even in the rain, and certainly more than taking the bus, as they used to do. For one thing, she didn't have to bother with older kids.
Ben Morin, 8, agreed. "Walking is better because people on the bus were cursing all the time," he said.
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
Walking is for the commoners
()
Date: November 17, 2009 06:49PM
From what I observe, many affluent moms and dads of this region simply must drop offtheir little Carson or Kelsey right in front of the school entrance (can't let him walk that extra 20 steps). That way, their little star gets an audience, too. They feel that walking is for the lower classes.
*BUT-If more people do start walking, please, PLEASE moms: SHARE THE SIDEWALK! Do not take up the entire sidewalk with your herd of kids or your gal pal and force other people off the sidewalk. The women are the WORST for being rude on the sidewalk.
*BUT-If more people do start walking, please, PLEASE moms: SHARE THE SIDEWALK! Do not take up the entire sidewalk with your herd of kids or your gal pal and force other people off the sidewalk. The women are the WORST for being rude on the sidewalk.
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
fooknova
()
Date: November 17, 2009 09:48PM
combat childhood obesity, stop busing everybody's veal children let them walk. it'll save money and be healthier for the kids. Hell they should cut back on crossing guards too, if you're too stupid to walk to school without getting hit then we shouldn't waste money trying to educate your mouth breather ass. (also called Darwinism). The didn't have crossing guards when I was a kid and i walked 3 blocks w/o sidewalks
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
SPAM
()
Date: November 19, 2009 12:33PM
Dear GMU Hokie,
So glad that you have become the WaPo puppet on FU. None of us would ever have found those awesome WaPo stories you dig up from lord knows where to repost here. We would never find out about sniper executions, craigslist romances, toll road rate increases and all the other useful blather you find to post here. Guess advertisement sales are down at the Post, you know with the economy and such. But who knows??? with all the hits from FU, sure they will get a boost sooner or later. Can you also let us know your twitter and facebook accounts so that we can follow all of the same brainless links there as well? Certainly would hate to miss out on seeing your important stories at least 16 times a day.
Signed,
SPAM I AM
So glad that you have become the WaPo puppet on FU. None of us would ever have found those awesome WaPo stories you dig up from lord knows where to repost here. We would never find out about sniper executions, craigslist romances, toll road rate increases and all the other useful blather you find to post here. Guess advertisement sales are down at the Post, you know with the economy and such. But who knows??? with all the hits from FU, sure they will get a boost sooner or later. Can you also let us know your twitter and facebook accounts so that we can follow all of the same brainless links there as well? Certainly would hate to miss out on seeing your important stories at least 16 times a day.
Signed,
SPAM I AM
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
SPAM
()
Date: November 19, 2009 12:40PM
So, any other ghey boys out there want to go get a gelato?
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
Snapple
()
Date: November 19, 2009 01:25PM
So people are afraid to let kids walk because two kids were killed since 1991. I wonder how many kids have died in car accidents on the way to school since then. I bet it's more than two.
Kidnapping of children by strangers is extraordinarily rare and it is rarer than it was when these parents were children, despite the TV news convincing people otherwise. If you want kids to be safe, you should teach them to swim, drive a safe car, and don't let them become obese. Those are all a hundred times more likely to kill a kid than a kidnapper.
Kidnapping of children by strangers is extraordinarily rare and it is rarer than it was when these parents were children, despite the TV news convincing people otherwise. If you want kids to be safe, you should teach them to swim, drive a safe car, and don't let them become obese. Those are all a hundred times more likely to kill a kid than a kidnapper.
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
fatty mcFatalot
()
Date: April 26, 2010 04:37PM
So you would prefer to have our children cross roads like 28, 29, 7100 in the morning just because it will save a little money for the state? I pay taxes so that my child is taken care of. PS 4 people have been reported as kidnapped on the way to school in Virginia. One person has been rescued. One person got away and two have not been found. Want to check those numbers again Snapple.
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
Get Real
()
Date: April 26, 2010 05:50PM
fatty mcFatalot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So you would prefer to have our children cross
> roads like 28, 29, 7100 in the morning ?
Yes, they have these people called crossing guards
> because it will save a little money for the state?
No, this was about obesity...however, money saving would be fine too.
> I pay taxes so that my child is taken care of.
I also pay taxes so your child is taken care of.
> PS 4 people have been reported as kidnapped on the
> way to school in Virginia. One person has been
> rescued. One person got away and two have not
> been found. Want to check those numbers again
> Snapple.
More kids killed in school bus accidents each year.
-------------------------------------------------------
> So you would prefer to have our children cross
> roads like 28, 29, 7100 in the morning ?
Yes, they have these people called crossing guards
> because it will save a little money for the state?
No, this was about obesity...however, money saving would be fine too.
> I pay taxes so that my child is taken care of.
I also pay taxes so your child is taken care of.
> PS 4 people have been reported as kidnapped on the
> way to school in Virginia. One person has been
> rescued. One person got away and two have not
> been found. Want to check those numbers again
> Snapple.
More kids killed in school bus accidents each year.
Re: FCPS takes a blow against childhood obesity . . . Get up and walk.
Posted by:
KeepOnTruckin
()
Date: April 27, 2010 12:08AM
fatty mcFatalot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So you would prefer to have our children cross
> roads like 28, 29, 7100 in the morning just
> because it will save a little money for the state?
> I pay taxes so that my child is taken care of.
> PS 4 people have been reported as kidnapped on the
> way to school in Virginia. One person has been
> rescued. One person got away and two have not
> been found. Want to check those numbers again
> Snapple.
How hard is it to cross such roads? You push the button to cross, walk out to the triangular island and wait for the white man to appear. If the red hand is up, the stand back. If your kid is too dumb to understand such things, then it will be better for everyone if he/she gets run over
-------------------------------------------------------
> So you would prefer to have our children cross
> roads like 28, 29, 7100 in the morning just
> because it will save a little money for the state?
> I pay taxes so that my child is taken care of.
> PS 4 people have been reported as kidnapped on the
> way to school in Virginia. One person has been
> rescued. One person got away and two have not
> been found. Want to check those numbers again
> Snapple.
How hard is it to cross such roads? You push the button to cross, walk out to the triangular island and wait for the white man to appear. If the red hand is up, the stand back. If your kid is too dumb to understand such things, then it will be better for everyone if he/she gets run over