Parents and teachers in City of Lake Worth: Carpool Alert.

There is a very important public meeting of the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency (TPA) tomorrow morning in Jupiter. More details are below.

Our City needs to show a presence. Why? This has to do with the effort to relieve overcrowding in public elementary schools here in this City. This was very big news recently in The Palm Beach Post. Below are excerpts and more information about that. Continue reading for more information.

Let’s digress momentarily.

Interestingly, as a side note, just today an editorial was published by GateHouse Media and The Palm Beach Post on the topic of the TPA headlined, “To curb fatalities, collaborative effort needed for safety of Palm Beach County pedestrians”. A massive and coordinated public information campaign, pushed off for far too long, is sorely needed to educate pedestrians and drivers of motor vehicles alike.

Then there is this from the editorial, when the wheels fall off the bus, so to speak.


Our county continues to grow and still heavily relies on cars, sport-utility vehicles and trucks to move around. . . . [H]eavily-traveled roadways don’t know municipal boundaries, and neither should solutions to this issue.


How ironic coming from a newspaper that’s been confusing and misleading the public about “municipal boundaries” for so long.

Now back to tomorrow’s TPA meeting which is of such high interest to this City of Lake Worth.

At the TPA agenda tomorrow to make your voice heard is Item 1I (One ‘Eye’): “General Public Comments”:


General comments will be heard prior to consideration of the first action item. . . . Please complete a comment card, which is available at the welcome table, and limit comments to three minutes.


FYI: The “General Comments” section of TPA Governing Board meetings is when the public gets to speak their mind on issues not specifically listed on the agenda, but. . .

[A]re directly related to transportation planning and funding within the jurisdiction of the Palm Beach TPA.

It would be a very good idea for our City of Lake Worth to have a presence at the TPA from parents, residents, stakeholders and the electeds to make it known that walking conditions for students attending Barton Elementary is a high priority.

And then, if you are able to stay at this meeting, Item 3A is about the, “Vision Zero Action Plan Progress”:


The Palm Beach TPA is preparing an Action Plan for consideration by the TPA Governing Board in March 2019. The Plan will provide actionable strategies and countermeasures the TPA can implement to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries in Palm Beach County.

Now back to the City of Lake Worth, our four public elementary schools, and why attending this TPA meeting matters.

In an effort to relieve overcrowding at Highland and South Grade the “proposed shuffle” as reported in the Post of students to Barton Elementary School may be problematic because Barton has been cited as a school in Palm Beach County with “Hazardous Walking Conditions” as was pointed out by the TPA last October.


[Click on this link to learn more about Highland Elementary School; for South Grade Elementary School use this link. 


Once again. It would be a very good idea to have a contingent of City of Lake Worth neighborhood leaders, residents and parents in attendance.

The TPA meeting tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. will be held at the Jupiter Community Center located at 200 Military Trail. Click on this link and scroll down for “2018 Governing Board Meetings”.

And on the ‘proposed shuffle’ of students to Barton the public will be given their chance to speak some time soon at a meeting to be held either at a public school here in the City or at Lake Worth City Hall. However, the date, time and location of that public meeting has yet to be announced. So stay tuned.

Education reporter Sonja Isger at the Post has this news datelined Nov. 21st; here is the opening paragraph:


Nearly 400 elementary students in and around Lake Worth could be redirected to other schools next fall in an effort to relieve crowding at two schools, while filling empty seats at two others.

later in the article. . .

The proposed shuffle would fill Barton with another 276 students from Highland and South Grade elementaries [sic], while sending another 114 from Highland to Palm Springs [Elementary School].

The neighborhoods that would be diverted include the southern half of the Royal Poinciana Neighborhood just east of the interstate and north of 6th Avenue South. [emphasis added] Those students currently attend South Grade and would move to Barton. Also, two communities north of Lake Worth Road and east of Congress Avenue would be redirected, with one going to Palm Springs and the other to Barton.

Before we proceed to Barton Elementary and that school’s hazardous walking conditions. Here is helpful information.

The public schools here in this City have become a top priority to the PBC School Board.

On November 1st a special meeting was held in Lake Worth City Hall. In attendance were PBC School Board members Erica Whitfield and Debra Robinson, Chief of Schools Keith Oswald, and the entire City Commission including Commissioner Omari Hardy, a public school teacher himself. To learn more about that public meeting — one which got virtually no attention from the press and news media until recently — click on this link.

For reference: A map of the City and to locate places such as the Royal Poinciana neighborhood within the Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council (NAPC) click on this link.

The NAPC is made up of representatives from fifteen neighborhoods across the City of Lake Worth and serves as an umbrella organization and recognizes that each neighborhood has its own character, unique qualities and each its own challenges. If your neighborhood is not represented by an active NAPC chapter find out how to get started: send an email to napcinfo@gmail.com

Now to Barton Elementary School

Barton is a school of particular concern and was addressed by the TPA on October 18th at the meeting of their Governing Board.

 School Hazardous Walking Conditions:

Click on image to enlarge:

To learn more about the TPA and “Connecting Communities” click on this link. For more about traffic and walking conditions in the area of Barton Elementary School contact transportation planner Alyssa Frank at 561-478-5744 or by email: AFrank@PalmBeachTPA.org

Please Note: All the information below was provided at the TPA Governing Board meeting held last October at the South County Civic Center located in suburban Delray Beach.

About House Bill 41, “Gabby’s Law
for Student Safety”:

• Updated to include metropolitan planning agencies in the School Hazardous Walking Conditions analysis process.
• TPA has completed analysis of all 107 Palm Beach County public elementary schools.

Florida Statute 1006.23 — Hazardous
Walking Conditions:

• Within two miles of school and attendance boundary.
• An area at least 4′ wide having a surface upon which students may walk.
• Crossings where the traffic volume on road exceeds the rate of 360 vehicles per hour per day.
• Crossings where the total traffic volume on road exceeds 4,000 vehicles per hour through an intersection.

Next Steps

• Meet with PBC School District to review profiles and confirm findings and determine next steps.
• Work with schools and local partners to plan, prioritize and fund projects to fix hazardous walking conditions.

Once again, about the TPA meeting tomorrow:


“All members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting and will be provided opportunities to speak.”