At January’s council meeting, Hillhurst School Council discussion traffic safety around Hillhurst School with Constable Steve Ross with The Calgary Police Service. Cst. Steve Ross is part of S4 (Stay Smart Stay Safe), a strength-based approach to education that Hillhurst School is participating in this year.
Although he is not the person in charge of traffic, he has observed traffic safety issues at the school, such as people double parking and kids crossing in the middle of the busy street to get to the school. He usually tries to suggest parking alternatives to parents, but there aren’t a lot of parking alternatives at Hillhurst.
In Cst. Ross’s opinion, The City needs to change the residential permit parking in front of the school to make more room for parents to park. He says it doesn’t take much for a tragedy to take place and the goal is to get people to think about safety before convenience.
It will take effort on the part of the school to get this resolved. One option is to get signatures from the community’s city councillor, the community association, etc. to have the parking signage changed and/or establish a drop-off and pick-up zone in front of the school. Principal Prem Randhawa suggested a parent could work with administration to look into this issue and explore the options. If you are interested in helping out with this issue, please contact hillhurstschoolcouncil@gmail.com.
