Taking a Stand
Last week, Kristina White, our community liaison, was invited to provide testimony on behalf of Springfield Local Schools to the Ohio House of Representatives’ Transportation Committee. What follows is the prepared statement that Mrs. White offered:
Chairman Baldridge–my name is Kristina White and I have served as community liaison for the Springfield Local School District in Holland, Ohio since 1999. I am here today to provide this statement to the members of the Ohio House Transportation Committee on behalf of our school district in support of House Bill 465. Let me first begin with our thanks to Mr. Sheehy and Mr. Bird for sponsoring this proposed legislation to establish requirements regarding Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) projects, specifically as they relate to schools and school zones.
We offer testimony not based on generalities but actual, real concerns. For those unfamiliar, historically our 120-plus year old district is located in what would have been called a rural area. The past decades of progress have changed that. Today, few would consider this an appropriate site for a traditional school campus. Heavily-used motor and rail traffic corridors and rapid industrial growth frame our preK-12 campus. Within the past year, while all were struggling to educate students in the midst of a pandemic, meetings took place and plans set forth that will have a significant and potentially dangerous effect on our school district. We were informed very late in the process that a project was well under way by our township administrator, NOT ODOT or our county engineer. Their meetings took place without our notification and without input from school officials–at least until the project was well under way.
Director Marchbanks was made aware of concerns that both the members of the Springfield Board of Education and administration had, first expressed in a letter mailed to him in August, 2021, for proposed changes in the traffic pattern on McCord Road in Holland. The area is adjacent to the district’s high school campus, administrative building and transportation offices. That letter is included with this text. The originally proposed improvements, and we use this word cautiously, and several “alternatives” would have increased the traffic into our school zone. After the district was informed, we were able to contribute to the overall outcome of the proposed project. The construction phase, however, is just one challenge; future student safety, once the work is done, is another.
A “turn-about” has many perceived safety components on paper. Yet, when actually placed on a busy road in a school zone experiencing heavy morning and afternoon traffic–well, this presents countless safety challenges for school administration in a community with limited law enforcement for support. This burden further limits the time spent by district leaders to actually accomplish what we most wish to do–educate children.
That is why we’re here today. School district officials can be valued partners and positively contribute when informed of road construction that affect students, parents, and traffic patterns in and around educational facilities.
While passage and implementation of this legislation may be too late to protect the children attending preK-12 classes within the Springfield Local School District, we appear here today to speak for all school district officials who deserve the opportunity to participate, as colleagues, with ODOT to create safer traffic conditions within communities throughout the state of Ohio.
As you can read in the prepared text that Mrs. White prepared, we believed that it was time to “take a stand!” Literally! Although the district worked very hard to raise awareness during the months of August and September, 2021, our elected officials reported that they did not receive substantial input or concerns from residents about the project. Even without a groundswell of grassroot support, district leaders and Springfield Township Administrator Mike Hampton and our elected township trustees have continued to fight the good fight on behalf of our students, faculty, staff and families. Our voices were heard.
We believe it was because of our efforts and disdain with ODOT’s failure to notify the district, that Mr. Sheehy introduced the measure in the Ohio House of Representatives. The bill, now in its third reading, appears to have gained bipartisan support. We thank him, Teresa Fedor who wrote similar language for her colleagues in the Ohio Senate, and all involved for their continued advocacy and passion for the safety of everyone associated with #springfield stong.
