Trustees will find out next week what it’s going to take to make Salter Street safer for children at Queensborough Middle School and Queen Elizabeth Elementary School.
New Westminster school district superintendent Karim Hachlaf is expected to provide trustees with a preliminary report on the next steps required to address traffic safety concerns around Queensborough schools.
Trustee Mary Lalji brought the issue to the board table earlier this month.
“I felt that it’s a safety issue that needs prompt attention and there are many factors to consider,” Lalji said at a meeting on Nov. 13, adding that more than 700 students attend Queensborough Middle School and Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, which are both located on Salter Street.
Trustees agreed and this week, they were asked to approve a motion to officially direct Hachlaf to contact the city on behalf of the school board to find out what could be done to make the road safer for students.
But before trustees could vote on the motion, trustee Anita Ansari moved an amendment to cut out the specific references to problems at the Queensborough schools and have the district look at traffic safety issues at all schools in the city.
But trustee Maya Russell said a district-wide review of traffic safety issues would be “substantive” and would require “some genuine consultation and engagement.”
“What has come to us is the issues at these two schools, so I think I would vote down the amendment and actually keep us focused on sorting out these particular problems,” Russell added.
Ansari’s amendment, which was supported by her and chair Mark Gifford, was defeated five to two.
