Getting students active by walking, or biking to school would go a long way toward meeting the suggested minimum in terms of daily physical activity.
That is why there is currently focus on a School Travel Planning Initiative by the Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative and Saskatchewan in motion.
Victoria Millette with Saskatchewan in Motion told a stakeholders meeting in the city last week that the goal is simply one of getting students active.
鈥淲e want more kids more active more often across the province,鈥� she said.
The goal is for 30-minutes of activity at home, 30 at school, and 30 in the community each day. Millette said if a student walks or bikes to school it is being active across all three areas.
To achieve the goal of more students being physically active in getting to school each day the partners have been working with four city schools on the School Travel Planning Initiative in areas such as benchmarking students numbers who already walk to school, surveying parents with regards to perceived barriers to having children walk to school, and focusing on signage and similar steps to creating safer walking access.
Millette said the interaction with parents is essential as they have greater confidence in the initiative when parents 鈥渇eel like they鈥檙e being listened too.鈥� The process grows 鈥渢rust in the school and the program.鈥�
The initial work at the schools, in year-one of the effort, the goal is to understand what is currently the norm at the school.
鈥淚t helps with understanding what鈥檚 going on at the school,鈥� said Millette. 鈥淔rom that we can create an action plan.鈥�
The principals of the four schools; Dr. Brass, Columbia, St. Mary鈥檚 and St. Paul鈥檚 all held a common concern from parents, that being safety. With that in mind all four schools have carried out traffic counts at their schools during the times students are arriving and leaving.
In addition to the high numbers of vehicles on some of the school streets there is a related concern over those which speed through the school zones.
Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney said Council has discussed the idea of photo radar in school zones in the city to help deal with the speeding issue.
鈥淲e鈥檙e ready to go ahead,鈥� he said, but added they have not been given the green light by SGI. 鈥淭here are some hoops to go through.鈥�
But it is something Maloney sees as a good deterrent.
鈥淧eople do slow down when their pocketbook is at risk,鈥� he said.
Greg Sturtz, principal at St. Mary鈥檚 School said something needs to be done to slow down traffic is some areas, noting Gladstone Avenue and Independent Street 鈥渁re like racetracks.鈥�
Sturtz said traffic is clearly a parental concern.
鈥淎 lot of parents are reluctant to have kids walk that way,鈥� he said.
The availability of bussing for students is also seen as a deterrent to students being active and walking to school.
And bussing is a cost to the system.
Jason Gordon, principal at Dr. Brass School noted it is not unusual for a 66-passenger school bus to roll up to the school with only 鈥�15 kids on it.鈥�
It was suggested if bussing of in-city students were reduced, it would get students back to walking or biking more.
Millette said moving forward they will work to monitor what impact efforts at the four schools have had, adding they do hope to have a presence 鈥渋n all the schools in Yorkton on some level鈥� as the initiative grows.
