Teachers in the Taft City School District are taking up the slack created by the elimination of all but one of the crossing guards.
Teachers at Roosevelt intermediate (fourth and fifth grades) and Lincoln Junior High (sixth, seventh and eighth) are taking turns ushering student across Warren and Sixth streets before and after school.
Those are the busiest streets surrounding the two schools.
Supt. Ron Bryant said things seem to be working out well so far, noting “very few comments or concerns” expressed by parents or school staff.
The underpass at Sixth and Warren, which was the primary method of crossing Sixth for many years, has been spruced up and can also be used. But students still mostly use the crosswalks.
The only crossing guard the district has now is one to make sure Conley School students in South Taft get safely across Wood Street.
Budget cuts eliminated the crossing guard at Parkview School and at the busy Sixth Street and Emmons Park Drive intersection.
A district boundary change negated the need for a Taft Primary School crossing guard on Kern Street (Highway 33).
The school district may get a boost from the city at Sixth and Emmons, which is particularly congested at school start and end times.
The city is planning to make that intersection a three-way stop.
Currently only traffic heading east on Emmons must stop.
Another change is pending for Emmons Park Drive.
Next week the Taft College Board of Trustees is expected to award a bid for construction of a new Transition to Independent Living (TIL) center on campus.
The building’s footprint will impinge on Emmons where it curves north to intersect with Ash Street.
The plan calls for closing Emmons as a through street. Traffic going west on Emmons from Sixth and Seventh streets will end up in a sort of cul-de-sac in front of the college.
Traffic can enter the main college parking lot on the north side of Emmons from Ash.
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Teachers in the Taft City School District are taking up the slack created by the elimination of all but one of the crossing guards.
Teachers at Roosevelt intermediate (fourth and fifth grades) and Lincoln Junior High (sixth, seventh and eighth) are taking turns ushering student across Warren and Sixth streets before and after school.
Those are the busiest streets surrounding the two schools.
Supt. Ron Bryant said things seem to be working out well so far, noting “very few comments or concerns” expressed by parents or school staff.
The underpass at Sixth and Warren, which was the primary method of crossing Sixth for many years, has been spruced up and can also be used. But students still mostly use the crosswalks.
The only crossing guard the district has now is one to make sure Conley School students in South Taft get safely across Wood Street.
Budget cuts eliminated the crossing guard at Parkview School and at the busy Sixth Street and Emmons Park Drive intersection.
A district boundary change negated the need for a Taft Primary School crossing guard on Kern Street (Highway 33).
The school district may get a boost from the city at Sixth and Emmons, which is particularly congested at school start and end times.
The city is planning to make that intersection a three-way stop.
Currently only traffic heading east on Emmons must stop.
Another change is pending for Emmons Park Drive.
Next week the Taft College Board of Trustees is expected to award a bid for construction of a new Transition to Independent Living (TIL) center on campus.
The building’s footprint will impinge on Emmons where it curves north to intersect with Ash Street.
The plan calls for closing Emmons as a through street. Traffic going west on Emmons from Sixth and Seventh streets will end up in a sort of cul-de-sac in front of the college.
Traffic can enter the main college parking lot on the north side of Emmons from Ash.
