New Westminster school trustees are counting on the mayor and city council to be able to help put an end to the traffic chaos that erupts around Queen Elizabeth Elementary and Queensborough Middle schools every day before and after school.
After a month of deliberation, school board chair Mark Gifford has sent a letter on behalf of all trustees urging the city to address traffic safety concerns around the two schools, specifically along Salter Street.
“As a location with severe site constraints, including limited sidewalks, crosswalks, or traffic signals, we are witnessing growing conflict between pedestrian and vehicle traffic compounded by tremendous growth,” Gifford writes.
“We are looking for guidance and support from the city to improve the current design and infrastructure concerns.”
Trustee Mary Lalji has been pushing for improvements to Salter Street since September. She wanted the school board to approve the creation of a joint task force with the city and other stakeholders to tackle the traffic problems around the Queensborough schools, but her fellow trustees felt a task force wasn’t the right direction.
Instead, trustees decided to write a letter to the mayor and, in the meantime, directed district staff to contact the city to see what it would take to resolve the traffic problems.
This week, superintendent Karim Hachlaf told trustees he’d been in contact with an architect to see if any modifications could be made to the parking lot at Queen Elizabeth Elementary School to improve dropoff and pickup at the school.
“The architect was able to draft up right now three options in ways that we could not lose parking spots, but maximize a dropoff area,” he said.
“Those drawings are draft right now, but the options considered are a roundabout, around the existing parking lot, including a pullout along Salter.”
No details on cost or what the modifications would look like have been released yet.
But the Queensborough Residents’ Association wants a solution that’s more immediate.
Association president Laurie Moore and director Laura Ranalletta were at this week’s combined education and operations policy and planning committee meeting to share their ideas on how to address traffic safety concerns on Salter Street.
Ranalletta, whose kids attend the elementary school, said there’s been talk about asking the owners of the nearby Roma Hall if parents could use its parking lot for pickup and dropoff.
“People in our community have initially put out feelers to see if the Roma Hall would be interested,” Ranalletta told trustees. “It’s a banquet and event space that’s typically only used on the weekends and the odd weekday, but never during dropoff and pickup.
“That parking lot – that would take care of the problem.”
Trustees applauded the association’s initiative and gave the group their full support to move forward on the Roma Hall idea while they wait to hear from the city about other potential solutions.
Staff is expected to provide an update to the board of education in the new year on their discussions with the city.
