by Jeff Commings
Arizona Daily Star

April 6, 2005

The Sunnyside Unified School District has been chosen as the pilot district for what could be a citywide "walking school bus" program, using Santa Clara Elementary as its model school.

Starting Friday morning, students will meet at four locations near Santa Clara and walk together with parents as chaperones. The walking school bus will occur each Friday for the remainder of the school year.

On a request from the University of Arizona's Cooperative Extension, the Elvira Neighborhood Association picked the school, at 6910 S. Santa Clara Ave., because it has a large number of students within walking distance of the school who already walk to campus.

"This was the ideal location," said Dan McDonald, a research specialist at the Cooperative Extension.

A $1,000 grant from the UA is funding the pilot through Activate Tucson, a collaborative of community organizations looking to get kids excited about exercise. McDonald said Santa Clara's participation will allow Activate Tucson to spread the word to other schools through literature and videos starting next school year.

Eddie Islas, Santa Clara's prevention specialist, estimated that 400 of the school's 600 students are within walking distance of the campus. Those who are bused in mostly come from the Tohono O'Odham Nation.

Of the students within walking distance, Islas said about 75 percent actually walk.

Students who are part of the walking school bus will get a ticket punched, which will make them eligible for prizes such as bicycles. Students who are bused to school will get to participate by walking around the playground during recess.

"That should get a good number of kids involved," Islas said.

Santa Clara is not the first Tucson school to implement a walking school bus program. Fruchthendler Elementary, in the Tucson Unified School District, started a similar program last year after successfully trying it during a Walk to School Week launch in 2004.

Santa Clara will even borrow a Fruchthendler idea: The class with the most walkers will win the Golden Shoe Award.

Some other local schools also have implemented various programs since 2005's Walk to School Week, which was held the first week of October. The national program aims to reduce bus pollution, start healthy exercise habits in children and get the public involved in creating safe neighborhoods.