School Board to Discuss Safety of Site Where Car Hit 12-Year-Old

Officials from the city of Elk Grove and the Elk Grove Unified School District have been working for years to make the area around Franklin High School and Toby Johnson Middle School safer, but accidents still happen there.

On Dec. 5, a 12-year-old riding his bicycle through a crosswalk near Toby Johnson was hit by a car.

The Elk Grove school board will discuss drop-off and pick-up safety around those two schools at a public meeting next week. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Jan. 8 at 9510 Elk Grove-Florin Road.

In an interview last month, Elk Grove Unified School District spokeswoman Liz Graswich said the district and school have added traffic signals, a digital speed sign, a center median on Whitelock Parkway, and made other improvements around the two schools.

She said the district has crossing guards and other staff monitoring the area during drop-off and pick-up times, but the schools still face challenges because of the dense population in the neighborhood.

"It's been one of our most impacted schools in terms of enrollment," Graswich said. "That area developed very, very rapidly."

The district has been meeting with the city to discuss other action, and the district will hear an update on those talks at its Jan. 8 meeting.

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What should the district and city do to keep pedestrians safe near Franklin and Toby Johnson? Tell us in the comments section.

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