School Board proposes ban on idling vehicles
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By Josh O'Gorman RUTLAND HERALD STAFF - Published: February 4, 2009
SPRINGFIELD — Students and faculty will be breathing a bit easier under a proposed ban on idling vehicles on school property.
Monday night, the School Board gave first reading to a proposed policy that would prohibit vehicles other than school buses from idling while on school property.
"The School Board recognizes that motor vehicle idling poses a risk to people in the vicinity and to the environment," said School Board member Larry Kraft, reading from the proposed policy.
The proposed policy comes from a law passed by the Legislature in 2007 that prohibits school buses from idling on school property, said Cathy Hilgendorf, school construction coordinator for the Department of Education and author of the legislation.
In addition to prohibiting school bus idling, the law instructed the state Board of Education to distribute to school boards a policy model, which is nearly identical to that presented to the School Board Monday night.
Hilgendorf said the Department of Education does not track how many school boards have adopted the policy statewide. John Nelson, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said his organization did not collect information on how many school boards have adopted the policy.
After reading the policy, Kraft said he was opposed to it because the Board ceded authority to administration to create transportation policy last summer.
"I support most of what's in the policy," Kraft said. "I just don't think it should be a board policy."
When asked the cost of enforcing the ban, Superintendent Frank Perotti said teachers and principals are already doing it.
Elm Hill Principal Jonni Nichols said administrators would appreciate the Board's support.
"Any time you ask us to implement something, it's nice to have something in writing behind it," Nichols said.
Perotti said he will revise the language of the proposed policy for the Board's next meeting Feb. 16.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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