Kimball High is indeed shaping up to be a beautiful addition to the city. As construction continues, close to 1,000 freshmen and sophomore students arrived for their first day of school. Construction on the new campus began a little more than a year ago, and already classes are serving our children.
With a feverish push, Kimball High was readied on time for fall classes. While there is still much work to do for our newest high school to be fully functional, everyone appeared to be pleased with the progress.
Everyone, except for the students who had to somehow figure out just how to get in out of the awkwardly placed school.
While the school’s location may at some point be an optimal location, right now it’s sitting in an almost unreachable island surrounded by the most dangerous intersection in town, a pot hole-filled, sidewalk-free, two-lane country road, flanked by a couple of farms and a private housing development caught in the middle of the access dilemma.
On the first day of school, complaints filed into local blogs speaking of how hard it is for those driving to get in and out of the temporary entrance. One blogger stated having to wait 45 minutes to get through the one-way exit.
Other students having to walk found that the city and school district only created a temporary sidewalk for the students coming from the north or northeast side of town. Students from the south and southeast were forced to cut through the private Redbridge Community and take their chances walking the mile or so distance through the gravel and dirt along the highly traveled and danger-filled Lammers Road.
Driving Lammers daily and watching the progress of the school this past year, I kept wondering just when the Lammers Road widening project would get under way. I could not imagine anyone in their right mind would have a high school serving thousands of walking, biking and driving children have access via only a sidewalk-less, beat-up country road.
I was wrong.
Sure enough, and with some amazement, the new high school opened with only a temporary signal light, a small bypass and an asphalt trail cutting through a farm that leads to 11th Street.
So how did this happen? Who would put the lives of our kids at risk so that a school could partially open? And, more important, why would they do this?
There apparently was a plan to have the Lammers widening and improvements completed prior to the opening of the school. However, the Lammers project was contingent upon the creation of the also much-anticipated Tracy Gateway project. Part of the requirements for the Gateway project is widening Lammers Road to six lanes, complete with sidewalks, medians and utility improvements.
According to the city of Tracy Web site on June 1, the construction was to take place prior to the opening of the school: “Within the next 30 days, construction will begin on Lammers Road to widen the street to six lanes. The developer, Tracy Gateway LLC, wanted to get construction under way before the grand opening of Kimball High School in August.”
Clearly, the intention was to have safer access to the new school prior to the opening. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. As construction was apparently delayed for the Gateway project, the school board went ahead and pressed on for the school to open.
Now all we can do is wait for Gateway to bring some relief to the dangers and access troubles plaguing our children as they simply try to get to and from the school that was rushed to open.
Parents concerned with the lack of access to the school have been taking their frustration out on the private Redbridge Community through negative letters to the Press and in their blogs. Redbridge recently added to its back access gate a pedestrian and bike gate to help curb nonresident access into the community supported by homeowner dues.
While Redbridge residents empathize with the adjacent community’s access issue, they are forced to consider the cost of privately supported maintenance incurred through open access to their private community.
Oddly, the Gateway project only requires that Lammers be widened up to the boundary of the Gateway project. So this all but ensures that communities adjacent to the private Redbridge subdivision will continue to resent the installation of the Redbridge privacy fence, as they are forced to travel around to Kimball high school. Students from Redbridge, by all indications, will have to travel north through the dirt along the unfinished portion of Lammers on their walk to and from school.
So, while some celebrate the on-time opening of our new high school, others are left wondering just why in the world we would put our children in danger and divide neighboring communities by rushing the opening of a school while overlooking the little things — like how the kids in question will arrive safely at school. •
• Brian Williams is a 16-year Tracy resident, husband and father of two, who works as a supervisor in the cable, phone and Internet industry.
They have a legitimate complaint.
Will it take a fatality before the city makes safety improvements to the roads?
Why cant "blame" or the simple oversite fall to the folks who actually planned and built the school?
The city website clearly stated that Lammers would be addressed prior to the school being built. The gateway was already approved and part of the approval process included the fact that the devlopers would fix Lammers.
So while the school went ahead and was opened, its the parents' fault that there are no sidewalks, lights, shoulders or the like.
Its not about blaming, its about fixing the issue at this point and educating folks as to maybe thinking future projects through prior to rushing to open a school placing tracy's children at risk.
On a side note my daughter does not attend nor will be attending Kimball. But as a resident and father, I felt the need to speak my thoughts.
Briandub
I would say so. Why didn't you ask the School System if they have a citizen's board or committee that you can join? The school board is responsible for Kimball and the reason Kimball is there is because MH had a demand. Couple that with the fact that you parents didn't care at the time. Now you are looking for someone to blame. It's called the blame game. But you haven't even figured out who to blame. The Gateway Project has nothing to do with the Kimball School. As much as you want that to be true. It isn't.
In this case the City or County should be applauded for installing the red light, sidewalk and crosswalks -- AFTER THE FACT. As autonomous as TUSD wants to be when it comes to this process, they need to wake up and work WITH the City and/or a citizen oversight group to insure this type of SNAFU doesn't happen again. Had TUSD been in better contact with the City they would've known the status of the Gateway Project and not "hung their hat" in its completion. The Gateway delays should've been known by the appropriate parties and a contingency plan to insure the safety of our children should have been in place BEFORE the first day of school.
"Prior Planning Prevents P____ Poor Performance!!!"
I
So let me just make sure I understand this. The hired professionals from the TUSD and the City of Tracy approved the 62 million dollar school to be placed in a location with only one relatively safe way to get in and out. This awkward location placed on a dangerous road filled with commuters leaves multiple cummunities south and south east of the school without safe access to the school.
And with all that being said, the safety and access oversights are not the fault of those officials, but of the redbridge parents?
If parent teacher night had the power to influence 62 million projects, I think we should think about putting the next bake sale idea on hold and maybe the PTA can make some calls so the Gateway project can break ground.
Again, this is not a redbridge issue, this is a school placement without safe access for all of our children.
And yes most dangerous for all the kids south, west and southeast of the school. Not just one housing development.
briandub
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