Schools
Culver City Middle School Chosen for Safe Routes to School Pilot Program
Called "Wheels & Heels" the program will work with kids to encourage them to walk and cycle safely to school and will hold a team building and leadership skills after school program.
Culver City Middle School has been chosen to participate in a Safe Routes to School Middle School Youth Engagement pilot program.
The program will work with kids to raise the number of students that walk and cycle to school, while building teamwork and leadership skills during an after-school program. Culver City Middle School is one of only three middle schools that were chosen to participate in the program.
The CCMS program, called Wheels & Heels, will be facilitated by CCMS faculty Karen Wyatt and Erica Young as well as local Safe Routes to Schools advocate Jim Shanman.
Find out what's happening in Culver Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The grant application was submitted on behalf of CCMS by Jim Shanman, founder of Walk ‘n Rollers, an organization committed to encouraging children to bike and walk to school more frequently. Currently, only 1 to 2 percent of the 1,500 student body cycles to school.
“This is a terrific opportunity for the middle school. With an easily accessible bike path that goes right to the school, tremendous congestion around the campus and a community working hard to become more bike and pedestrian friendly, CCMS is an ideal school to test a pilot program,” Shanman said in an official statement.
Find out what's happening in Culver Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
What makes the program unique, said Shanman, is that “it puts the students in charge. As facilitators, our role is not so much to instruct the students as to guide them to a result.”
As a group, the students will determine what are the worst problems at the school and decide how to address them. They’ll then select one of three tracks to pursue:
- Increasing biking and walking
- Increasing safety or
- Reducing the number of cars coming to school
Together they will conduct surveys, analyze the results, craft a campaign, implement it and observe the results.
The free program will comprise nine sessions that will be held after school on campus on Wednesdays from 2:30 – 4 p.m in room 302. The program begins April 10 and continues through June 5.
Interested students and parents can visit www.walknrollers.org/ccms for more information and download the parent permission form.
Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our free daily newsletter for email updates.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
