When school kicks off next September, Grade 7 students from the Glebe might find themselves travelling some of Centretown’s busiest streets to get to class.
On Dec. 20, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board approved a plan to redirect students from the Glebe’s over-crowded Hopewell Avenue Public School to Glashan Public School, located on Arlington Avenue.
However, the growth of Glashan’s student body has some members of the community worried about safe walking routes for students travelling through the area’s busy streets.
Eric Darwin, president of the Dalhousie Community Association, says he would be reluctant to let even a 13-year-old cross the streets surrounding Glashan without an adult.
“You have to be able to read intersections and read those cars that are inching in one direction while the motorist is looking in the other direction,” says Darwin.
“Even for students at Glashan to make their way over to McNabb Park is something that parents should certainly think twice about letting their children do by themselves,” he adds.
Glashan’s numbers are growing because the school is introducing early and middle French immersion programs to meet the rising demand for French schooling in Centretown and the Glebe.
“The change will divert about 150 new Grade 7 and 8 students to Glashan over the next two years,” says Marc Labelle, the school board planner in charge of increasing Glashan’s enrolment.
“This will bring the school close to its 386 student capacity, as opposed to right now where it is significantly underutilized.”
Despite the increase in the number of students, there are no plans to boost the number of crossing guards or school buses serving Glashan, says Jennifer McKenzie, chair of the school board and trustee for Kitchissippi-Somerset.
She says that by Grade 7, students are old enough and smart enough to cross streets by themselves.
However, to get to Glashan from the Glebe, many students walk along traffic-heavy Bronson Avenue and under the Queensway before crossing at Arlington Avenue, located one block north of Catherine Street.
“The problem with this is that there is no traffic signal at Bronson and Arlington,” says Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes.
Because Bronson Avenue is scheduled to undergo major renovations over the next two years, Holmes says that now is the perfect time to create a pedestrian-friendly intersection at Arlington Avenue.
“Part of digging up Bronson for repairs would then become an opportunity to lay the wiring for this new traffic light and get it installed,” says Holmes.
“We could also put a crosswalk in place to make crossing the road easier and safer.”
Holmes is expected to issue a report to the transportation committee on Feb. 2 outlining the importance of a crosswalk and push-button traffic light at Bronson and Arlington.
“Getting children safely to school at Glashan is one of the main reasons behind our recommendation,” says Holmes.
Holmes says she is confident that the creation of a stop light and crosswalk at Bronson and Arlington avenues will be approved by council next month.