Is There a Potential School Bus Tragedy in the Making because of Deficient Traffic Infrastructure in the Southern Part of District 1?

Photo of traffic bottleneck at Sorrento Road and Merlin Road, Courtesy of Philip Williamson

Everyone's worst nightmare and fear is that a bus-full of children get hit in traffic, causing potential serious injuries and even fatalities.  We should do everything we can to avoid this type of a worst case scenario from ever occurring if there is any way to avoid it.

But is there a potential school bus tragedy in the making right here in Escambia County's District 1 due to deficient traffic infrastructure?

In my current campaign for the District 1 County Commission Seat, I have been traveling extensively throughout District 1.  I am keeping an updated list of all the issues in all the neighborhoods I visit. It is a detailed list that is growing longer and longer.  And there are many issues I have compiled in my travels to more than 5,000 houses personally thus far in this election.

But over the last several weeks as I have spent a good deal of time in the southernmost part of district 1, I have heard over and over that the intersection of Merlin Road and Sorrento Road is an accident waiting to happen----because there is so much traffic attempting to get out in the afternoons and these folks have to fight against huge throngs of people attempting to head toward Peredido Keh.  And there are frequently as many as 15 school busses loaded with children trying to go left on Sorrento after school lets out.

One concerned resident, the resident that sent me the above picture, said to me recently "Do we have to wait until a bus full of students gets hit and we have fatalities!?! Let's get on with it and get a light out here!"

I told this gentleman I would work this issue and I agreed with his assessment.  I will work this issue starting today--it is far too important to wait until August 30th.  Perhaps the answer, in the near term, is to have one of our school resource officers direct traffic in the mornings and afternoons to alleviate this safety concern until the infrastructure can be appropriately addressed?  I will begin working toward a fix right away.




*Disclaimer:  This is not my campaign site, my campaign site for BCC District one is here.  In an abundance of caution, I place the following disclaimer on this post:

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Jeff Bergosh, Republican, for Escambia County Commission District 1

Student Surveys: A Profound Step Forward for Escambia County Schools

A year ago I had the good fortune to attend a conference of school board members in Nashville, and one of the presentations I watched was on the subject of confidential student surveys.  The previous year, in New Orleans, I had seen a similar presentation on student surveys.

The Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut were battling an epidemic of bullying in schools and they were also attempting to stem the tide of student depression among the local population in the effort to prevent suicides.  These schools did this by initiating compulsory student surveys, confidential but non-anonymous, for all students in grades 3-11.  The surveys were developed to be age appropriate for each grade level, and many of the questions were innocuous, while some of the questions were designed to be "trigger" questions that would identify students who were suffering from depression, bullying, or other serious issues.  An affirmative response to a trigger question would be reported to school counseling services and such students would immediately be given support and assistance.

On the first round of implementing their plan, this Connecticut School District had one student answer one of the trigger questions as follows:

"there are some people who call me names and … people start rumors about me that i dont like sometimes i want to die and kill myself before the next day. i feel like everyone hates me and for no reason. ive sometimes been nice but when they bring up the rumor i say realy bad things to keep them away … one day i was thrown a note saying im ###. and it was my by bestfriend ... i lost the only thing that i can trust. i was alone for a long time. if this is un healthy then pleace help me …" 

Fortunately, this student was referred to counseling and received the help he needed.  (Other similar responses can be found on slide 22 of this informative 38 slide Power Point presentation on Meridens'

Newpoint Public Records: My Portion of the Records Request Ready for Release Today

On April 6th a huge public records request was made for the documents I have in my possession regarding the Newpoint Investigation.

I worked diligently to compile my part of the information in order to answer this request, but there was some disagreement between lawyers as to what was exempt and what must be released.

At the beginning of this week, the State's Attorney cleared up the issue and sent a letter to the Board's attorney, delineating clearly, with emphasis, what is exempt and what must be released.

So my thick stack of records has been redacted and the requestors of this information have been notified and will be provided this information today.

Because of the voluminous quantity of data, I have not yet determined what, if any, I will be able to link to this blog.

I may link some in a series of forthcoming posts.

Among the allegations found in some of my public records to be released today: (These are ALLEGATIONS ONLY at this point and much of this is the subject of a current, active, multi-agency investigation presently)

-Newpoint altered grades
-Newpoint jeopardized student safety multiple times and in multiple ways
-Teachers provided students answers "over their shoulders"

-ECSD failed to follow up on numerous phone calls, emails and written correspondence documenting