High Plains School first-grade students Kaelan Rabon, right, and Katelynn O’Campo, center right, touch a new school zone speed limit sign Wednesday as their kindergarten teachers from last year show them the new sign at the school in Loveland. With the help of their kindergarten teachers, they and their classmates successfully lobbied the city to get traffic safety improvements around their school. Classmates from left are Lyla Hisley, Kian Todd, Athen Brown and Kerrigan Robertson. High Pains staff members from left are Lindy Jones, Val Price and Mindi Mayberry. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)
There are few things in life more rewarding than seeing a long and arduous project brought to a successful conclusion, as a group of six first-grade students at Loveland’s High Plains School will attest. This week, Loveland Public Works unveiled one of several new traffic safety signs coming to busy streets around the school, the result of a months-long process of study, advocacy and collaboration by the six that started back in kindergarten.
“They’re feeling very empowered with this,” said Lindy Jones, an instructional coach at the school and the coordinator of its problem based learning (PBL) initiative. “It’s very empowering to see that they can make change, no matter what their age.”
It all started last fall when Athen Brown, Lyla Hisley, Katelynn O’Campo, Kaelen Rabon, Kerrigan Robertson, and Kian Todd embarked on a quest to learn more about how to be safe in their neighborhood for the first problem based learning unit in Mindi Mayberry, Valerie Price and Marci Bakke’s kindergarten classes.
According to Jones, a discussion about safely navigating roundabouts on foot eventually grew into a wider conversation about walking to school safely, a growing concern among the High Plains community.
Deciding to look into the problem more deeply, the kindergartners sought more information about the problem from fellow students and their families. They also heard presentations about traffic safety by representatives from the Loveland Police Department and Thompson School District, as well as city Engineer Nicole Hahn from Loveland Public Works, who later called the classroom visit her “favorite day of work” last year and a great opportunity to recruit future engineers.
“I got a chance to bring some props and share a little bit about the work that we do and how we make the decisions we make and the analysis side that goes into traffic safety,” she said. “So we got to talk a little bit about our process and the math that we do to get to decisions in these areas.”
At the end of the unit, the six students delivered a series of recommendations for making their routes to school safer to a panel of professionals that included Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh and senior city transportation planner Katie Guthrie. Among their suggestions were enhanced signage and crosswalks on Pristine Lake Drive, Boyd Lake Drive, Long Pine Drive and Buffalo Mountain Drive.
“They were impressed and thought it was a great idea,” Jones said. “So they asked us to then present to the Youth Advisory Council and the Transportation Advisory Board and then they said why don’t you come to City Council.”
The students made the rounds with their recommendations in January, receiving a positive reception from city leaders. Hahn and her team agreed to perform their own analysis of the matter and see what public works could do to fulfill their requests.
It would be a few months before the students heard from the city again, but when Hahn returned in the spring, she had good news to report. The city would be moving forward with reducing the speed limit on Pristine Drive north of the school to 20 miles per hour and installing new school zone signs. There will also be “No Parking” signs installed on Buffalo Mountain Drive to reduce congestion.
As for the students’ most pressing recommendation, Hahn also announced that the city also received a grant from the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program to install a rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) system at Pristine Lake Drive and Long Pine Drive that will make the crosswalk more visible.
But that wasn’t all. Inspired by the kindergartners, Hahn and her team expanded their evaluation of traffic safety around all Loveland schools and found more room for improvement. Using the grant money, RRFBs or enhanced signs will also be installed at four other locations around town where student foot traffic is concentrated, including Carlisle Drive at Eagle Drive and 43rd Street at Georgetown Drive.
However, installation of the RRFBs isn’t exactly imminent. Hahn and her team are expecting the grant funds to become available in 2025. A $500 contribution from the kindergarten classes, earned through the sale of engraved Christmas ornaments, was politely refused by the city and, instead, will be used to create a school safety grant, Jones said.
Though this phase of the safety analysis is complete, Hahn said that the school assessments are still ongoing in partnership with the school district, and additional improvements could be coming in the future. Her team will also monitor traffic near High Plains to ensure the new signs are having the desired effect.
“I come to work every day because I want to make our roadways safer and I want to improve safety in our community,” Hahn said. “That matters a lot to me personally. And being able to share with the students, I think is a really exciting and important thing to do.”
In the meantime, the six students were thrilled to see the new 20 MPH school zone sign for Pristine Lake Drive, and feel “amazing” about their role in making their classmates and fellow Loveland students safer on the way to school. Jones, too, said that she and other High Plains staff members are excited about the new safety-oriented partnership between local students and the city and consider it the most important outcome of the effort.
“Sometimes people think, ‘oh, they’re kindergarteners and first graders — what are they going to do?’,” she said. “They have a voice too and they like to learn about this stuff just as much. They’ll speak up if they understand what they’re talking about.”
Safety advice
Loveland Public Works also wants to remind parents and students that there are additional safety measures they can take to ensure a safe commute during the new 2023-24 school year, including:
• When dropping off or picking up your student, be sure to follow Thompson School District’s guidance and any modified traffic patterns if they exist. Do not double park or load/unload children across the street from school.
• Look out for young pedestrians, especially in school zones, near playgrounds and parks and in all residential areas. When planning a walk or bike route with your children, choose the safest route to school with sidewalks or designated bike lanes, and remind them to walk in groups as much as they can.
• School buses carry our most precious cargo, but the area 10 feet around a school bus can be the most dangerous for them. Be sure to never (never ever!) pass a school bus with flashing lights or one that’s stopped to load and unload children. Also, remember to leave plenty of distance between the back of the bus and your snazzy ride.
• Remember to SLOW down! Fines are doubled in school zones. Find when and where school zones are in effect here: lovgov.org/SchoolZones
Find more safety tips and view the city of Loveland’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan at lovgov.org/BikePed