Sunrise Elememtary Lacks in its Safety Plan

            Over the past two years, Sunrise Elementary in Smithfield, UT, has lacked to provide a safe walking route for its students.

            When the 2010-2011 school year approached, Cache County School District announced that there would no longer be a bussing system provided to Sunrise Elementary due to budget cuts and new boundaries. Parents would either have to drive their students or have them walk.

Safety was a concern for many, including those who live over a mile away from the school. Over half of the walking and bike routes leading to the school do not have sidewalks or crossing guards according to residents living above Hillside Drive.

            Under Utah law, every elementary school is responsible for developing and implementing safe routes for its students. The Sunrise Community Council is required to do this as stated in the council guidelines.

            Utah Department of Transportation helps assist schools by creating a safe routes plan through a federally funded program called Safe Routes to School. UDOT has developed the Student Neighborhood Access Program, also known as SNAP, as a guideline that schools should follow when devising the plan.

            Although Sunrise Elementary has complied with its legal responsibility to have a SNAP plan, the UDOT recommendation to cover a one mile radius is not met as shown on their safe route map.

 The areas outside the route on the SNAP plan map are the places that have the highest safety issues. These are the places that do not have sidewalks. There is also a road that has to be crossed that has a speed limit of 40 mph and no crossing guards.

            “It is very frustrating that there is no cooperation with the school when we have concerns with our children walking,” said Laura Griffin, a resident outside of the SNAP plan boundaries. “I am a working mom and have had to arrange for others to take my kids to school to get there safely.”

            “This defeats the purposes of having less traffic congestion near the school and promoting more exercise when students are being driven to school anyways,” said Jocelyn McKracken another Sunrise students parent.

            Sunrise Elementary has two crossing guards to cover the walking area of the school’s boundaries, both of them positioned less than one-tenth of a mile from the school according to their safe route map posted online. 

Cache County School District has not returned calls about issues regarding the SNAP plan at Sunrise Elementary.

Several parents have stated their concerns with the walking conditions and safety issues regarding Sunrise Elementary, most recently in the Smithfield City council meetings.