- Lack of crosswalks, sidewalks, and traffic regulation in front of Jackson's Sharp Park Academy is raising concerns about pedestrian safety.
- Parents feel navigating traffic on foot during drop-off and pick-up can be risky.
- Jackson Public School District and County officials say area is about to be designated a school zone, with a crosswalk coming soon.
- Video shows Sharp Park Academy and neighborhood during pick-up from pedestrians' point of view, parents expressing concern, School District and County response.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Parents and kids are supposed to be able to walk safely to and from school. Parents I talked to say this is a concern at Jackson's Sharp Park Academy. School and County officials tell me a solution is in the works.
Moving back to Jackson with two young daughters, Shannon Blount thought she had found the perfect spot to call home — just half a block from Sharp Park Academy.
"The neighborhood was the biggest plus for us," says Blount. "My sister and her children attend Sharp Park. So, that community — having that closeness — and being able to have a school system that we can go to where our family is there, too."
But making the daily trip on foot safely, she says, is a challenge she didn't expect.
"It's a little frustrating. The safety procedures are very lax within the community here," says Blount. "There's no crosswalks, there's no sidewalks. So it has been very hard to try to get a safe way to cross the street every morning without being put at risk of being hit by a car."
And scary for her daughter. Blount or her husband walk her to and from school each day.
"My daughter gets very nervous going to school every morning because of that reason, as well, and she has a lot of anxiety that is starting to kick up."
Sharp Park Academy faces Park Road — a narrow two lane road with barely a shoulder.
No sidewalks. No crosswalks.
I asked Blount to show me her daily after school walk.
As we made our way out of their residential street, parents were collecting their kids — cars parked in side streets and in limited school parking spaces
…many then weaving on foot between parked and moving cars, navigating Park Road traffic.
Cars backing out having quite a time…and nobody, as far as I could tell, directing traffic or guarding street crossings.
Notes Blount: "There's just a lot of commotion, a lot of movement with the vehicles up there that it's a concern."
Parent Elsa Backus: "It'd be nice to have a crosswalk there to kind of assist us in getting our kids to our cars."
I reached out to Superintendent of Jackson Public Schools Jeff Beal about the situation. Beal wrote to me that most schools were not built to accommodate such numbers of parents picking up students. However, he said, the District had been in touch with Jackson County to get a crosswalk for Park Road.
Deputy Managing Director of Jackson County's Department of Transportation Charlie Briner confirmed that the District recently requested to designate the area a School Zone. This would allow for a crosswalk at Walmont Road.
Blount says she's been hearing that from the District for half a year since first raising the issue a year ago and repeated inquiries since then.
"You finally connected with the Jackson Road Commission and that you're finally getting that ball rolling. Where were you six months ago? Why did it take this long?" she wonders.
Briner says the school zone designation should be implemented within a few weeks.
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