Safe Routes to School - Novato Task Force
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Meeting Notes
Attendance: Pat Eklund- City of Novato Mayor, Michael Hanlon-Novato DPW, Wendi Kallins- Safe Routes to Schools, Peggy Clark-Safe Routes to Schools, Ashley Tam- Parisi Assoc., Mark Silva-Novato School District, Kelly Smith- Team Leader Loma Verde School, Citaly Capios- Student, Kesly Corneop-Student San Jose Middle School, Elizabeth Cervantes- Parent, Eloisa Mercinas- Parent
Infrastructure updates:
Vineyard Road Timing:
This project is no longer a Safe Routes to Schools project; reported by the Novato Department of Public Works. Roadway improvements are planned for the summer of 2017. Neither bike lanes nor sidewalk improvements will be included in this project. Funding for the planned improvements will be from federal funding not Safe Routes to Schools funding.
Crosswalks improvements:
Planned projects will begin on June 13; planned to be completed by Fall, 2016.
Sunset Parkway near Lynwood school is scheduled for a radar feedback sign. There are seven planned installments for this summer including Pleasant Valley, Novato and San Marin High Schools, Hamilton School.
Novato DPW has another grant to fund 5 more crosswalk improvements: George Street, Sherman at Delong, Novato Blvd near McClay Rd, Redwood Blvd at Rush Creek Place.
The DPW is also applying for a number of additional grants. These are annual grants the City of Novato applies for. The City is losing engineering staff this spring. This reduction in staff will affect SR2S planned projects.
San Jose Middle School issues:
The project is a general Safe Routes project. Pat requested TAM and Safe Routes to Schools include projects that do include carpooling. Also the neighbors on Merritt Drive feel very strongly about the traffic issues on their street. They feel the dangerous traffic issues impeded safe travel for the students at San Jose Middle School.
Other Issues:
Lynwood School:
The 4 hour parking on Rowland between Leafwood and Redwood Blvd has been removed to allow overflow parking from Leafwood.


Elizabeth researched the permit parking program. There are 300 vehicles with parking permits but there are only 55 parking spaces. Many of the permits have expired; those vehicles should be issued tickets when parked illegally. The neighbors would like the parking spaces striped. Many times spaces are blocked and held for specific vehicles. The street cleaner no longer services this area because they cannot get near the curbs because of the long term parked vehicles. It would be helpful to have a traffic officer who could support monitoring the area by Lynwood School.
To mark the parking spaces the DPW would need to map the spaces to determine how many spaces would be lost. Then the neighborhood would have to be notified and the changes approved.
TAM is looking into developing a volunteer crossing guard program. This could be a great option for Lynwood School. Many parents are supporting increasing safety for the students. There is also a “pedestrian flag” resources that is being using in Corte Madera and Fairfax. Handheld warning flags are attached to a small hand pole. They are stored at specific crosswalks; pedestrian can grab a flag to waive before crossing an intersection to warn vehicle drivers in advance.
The administration at Lynwood has been incredibly supportive. They had a really successful partnership with both the health department and the Food Bank and there was superb enthusiasm during the Green Sneaker Challenge. For the first time in an underserved school, parents took the lead of the contest, with the support of the HHS intern and SR2S. The school supported their efforts by giving a dollar reward to every single child that participated in the GSC (updated supplied by Monica Leifer of Safe Routes to Schools)


Lynwood hosted a large assembly after the school's Walkathon. During the Walkathon walking to school was encouraged. A student raffle was conducted by the City for a student to be “Mayor for the Day”. This program invites a student to spend a day with the Mayor.

Neighborhood committees:
Novato would like support from Safe Routes to Schools to develop neighborhood safety committees. These committees can meet locally to address local neighborhood issues relative to the people attending. The specific neighborhood committees can address many issues vs. one or two at a time. They can also meet locally in the neighborhood to encourage greater participation.
Lynwood is a good example for a new neighborhood committee. If neighbors could meet to consider the 15mph speed limit by the schools, this could expedite the process for Safe Routes to Schools and the City.
Pat will address the 15 mph speed limit recommendation with the City Council soon. San Anselmo will be posting the 15mph speed limit by specific schools this year. Sean Condry of the Ross Valley DPW is a resource to learn more the about new speed limit when students are present.
A recommendation was made to address the 15mph speed limit by all Novato Schools at one time. This would not include Loma Verde School which is in the County jurisdictions. A speed feedback sign was recommend for Loma Verde School. SR2S is not clear if the County supports the new 15mph near schools.
Speed limits have been monitored near Lynwood School. Most of the vehicles are not exceeding the posted speed limit; but they may be going too fast for the many types of users and road conditions. The vehicles parked on both sides of the road impair sight lines for vehicle drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
Loma Verde School
The Team Leader would like the DPW to look into the pathway to Ignicia Blvd. This was briefly discussed at an earlier SR2S meeting. Kelly will send photos to Mike and he will look into the property/area. He is not sure if it is city or private property.
The school year has gone very well, parents are very positive. Kelly had a baby in January and had to take time off; however she returned in the spring to keep Walking & Roll day's going. She would like to see more carpooling. She believes many of the students do not know what it means to carpool and could do it more often
Hamilton School
The school area is still dealing with many traffic issues near the school.
San Jose Middle School
This is the only middle school without a Safe Routes to Schools program. Support is needed from the administration and from a school teacher to help start a SR2S Teens Go Green club. Sinaloa has a well supported club that is developing more each year.
Citaly a Leadership Program student at San Jose MS suggested SR2S contact Miss Broden an 8th grade history teacher. She is known to support/encourage students to walk and roll to school when the can.
The school PTA assigns a person to manage and encourage carpooling. Most carpool program succeed when they can connect people; websites and apps are not as successful.
Novato High
Novato High now has a crossing guard.
Next meeting:
Wednesday, Sept 21, 2016 at 7:00pm -To Be Confirmed