City responds to crosswalk concerns for Colorado Springs charter school

Getting to school should be easy, but some students at New Summit Charter Academy are facing dangers every morning.

School administrators and parents told KRDO they are worried that students who cross from Ford Frick Park onto the school property and across Lexington Drive are going to get hit by oncoming traffic.

They requested a new crosswalk, but it’s coming with an $8,706 bill from the City of Colorado Springs.

Monday, Colorado Springs City Traffic Engineer Todd Frisbie explained a crosswalk was put in when the school opened last year.

The only problem is: parents and students don’t use it. It sits at the intersection of Lexington and Meadow Ridge, and instead of walking to the end of the street, some families cross illegally.

Frisbie says, “They’re not always the most convenient, but we strive always for them to be the safest.”

John Coppin, Dean and Safety Director at the school, said, “We tell them, please go all the way down to the crosswalk and cross over at the stop sign and come all the way back, and you have those people who are not going to do that.”

The city isn’t covering the entire bill because they’ve already provided a crosswalk.

Frisbie explains, “If the request involves paint and signs, we can do that, but if it involves infrastructure like signals and sidewalk modifications then we have to look at each school’s request and determine is it the best use of funds that we have.”

He continues later in the conversation, “We want to partner with the schools to put in the infrastructure that makes sense for the funding that we have and the need that’s there.”

The school says they are in talks with the city to complete the sidewalk and will ultimately come up with the funds needed to get a new crosswalk, but school leaders still think the city should be responsible.

KRDO Only 2019