Brandon Swindell, logistics coordinator, left, and David Robertson, chief education officer discuss a proposed walking route to Harrison Elementary School to the Warsaw school board.

WARSAW — A plan is in the works to allow some students living nearby to walk each school day to Harrison Elementary School for the first time in the school’s history, according to David Robertson, chief education officer of Warsaw Community School Corporation.

Robertson told the corporation’s board of trustees Tuesday night, March 13, that recent pedestrian-oriented improvements in the area around Harrison Elementary gave rise to the idea of students walking to school at the elementary school located in northern Warsaw.

“Thanks to the work the city has done,” said Robertson, “the Husky Trail project is finished and they did a beautiful job with it. We came to ‘what would it look like if we were to create a walking zone for Harrison Elementary School?’” Robertson said that in the school’s history, students could only get to school by bus, even though some students live very close to the school. “We have a couple of close neighborhoods, but there hasn’t been infrastructure in place in order to safely walk kids to school,” he said. “Now that we have some infrastructure in place, we are looking forward to making some changes starting next school year.”

Robertson made the presentation to the board at its monthly work session, along with Transportation Director Mark Fick and Logistics Coordinator Brandon Swindell. Robertson said a parent meeting for the families that will be involved in the change is scheduled for March 28,

The change, if approved by the board, will eliminate one bus route and relegate 60 students from that route to walk-in status.

All walking routes will converge to cross Husky Trail at the current crosswalk located at the intersection of Husky Trail and North Pointe Drive directly to the west of Harrison Elementary School.