The Midway Independent School District is requesting that the City of Waco consider adding sidewalks on their campuses.
Midway High School is one of the areas, along with River Valley and Woodgate Intermediate Schools, where district officials think sidewalks are needed.
At Midway High on Mars Dr., there aren't any sidewalks around the school at all.
District officials said this causes safety concerns because students walking home from school are forced to walk close to passing cars.
“Whether they're on the road or in the grass or in the ditch area, it's not the safest idea for pedestrians to be along so much traffic, fast traffic, heavy traffic. If we could have a more safe, designated area for pedestrians- the more we could do the better.” Midway ISD Spokeswoman Traci Marlin said.
Marlin said not having sidewalks sometimes forces kids to walk in mud or on the street when there is bad weather.
Some Midway ISD students who live within two miles of their school walk or ride bikes to their campus.
"Within that two miles, if we could have a good infrastructure, that would really improve safety for all of our students,” Marlin said.
However, Midway ISD campuses are not the only areas that need sidewalks. In 2014, the City of Waco developed a priority list of 17 sidewalk projects.
Five of these projects have been completed, one is in the design stage and another is in the bidding process.
The City of Waco currently has a budget of $250,000 per year to build sidewalks.
Several Waco schools, including Kendrick Elementary, Tennyson Middle School, and University High School are on the priority list.
According to City Spokesman Larry Holze, the projects involving schools are high priority.
“The main thing is safety and we would like to do all we can but we have limited funds that we can direct that way,” Holze said. "We emphasize the areas around schools. We want to make sure children have a safe walkway. That's going to be around collector and arterial streets, where there is a heavier flow of traffic."
Midway ISD administrators officials who spoke with Waco officials also expressed interest in partnering with the city to help fund the project, according to Marlin.
“We are definitely looking forward to partnering on these projects in order to improve safety for our kids,” Marlin said.
Waco city officials said a partnership could help speed up the process of completing the projects.
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