City to seek state grants for safer walking, biking routes
by Judy Stringer
Dec. 16 board of education meeting
Hudson City Planner Nick Sugar told the Hudson City School Board he plans to collaborate with Hudson City School District Director of Operations Tom Barone to identify priority areas where the city will apply for state grants aimed at improving the safety of walking and biking to local school buildings.
“[The city is] trying to get an application together for around February,” he said.
Each year, Ohio allocates $5 million to communities across the state as part of the national Safe Routes to School program, according to Sugar. To be eligible for those funds, the city must have a School Travel Plan approved by city council on file with the state. Sugar said Hudson’s last travel plan was approved in 2011.
A working group helped draft the 2024 version after garnering resident feedback through a survey and open house, and performing a live audit in which the working group observed students walking and biking to schools. The final plan includes 43 infrastructure improvement recommendations inside and outside the campus, such as widening sidewalks and installing speed humps on nearby streets, and about 20 educational and promotional proposals.
Sugar said the city and schools will work together to identify for which of those recommendations they want to seek grant funding.
Hudson City Council approved the 2024 School Travel Plan at its Oct. 1 meeting but did so without the help of Council President Chris Foster, the lone vote against it. Foster said he was not supportive of the plan because it lays out priorities that might not align with the city’s comprehensive plan and other infrastructure initiatives.
At that Oct. 1 meeting, Hudson council member Nicole Kowalski and Mayor Jeff Anzevino, who were part of the Safe Routes to Schools working group, said the document is “guidance” and does not commit the city to any specific projects.
The district’s ReGreen effort will get another $45,000 boost thanks to a donation from the Tom & Gail Tobin Family Fund of the American Endowment Foundation. Earlier this year, Hayden Parkway resident Mitchel Fromm gifted $45,000 to ReGreen – a set of projects to restore and improve the campus landscape.
Other board-approved donations include:
- $2,064 from Summit Diamonds Softball for an AED for the softball fields.
- $950 from the Hudson High School Soccer Fund for Suburban League Championship shirts for boys and girls soccer.
- $4,500 from the Youth, Education and Recreation Fund for Hudson Middle School’s Science Olympiad Team.
- $4,000 grant from the Hudson Prevention & Addiction Resource Fund for Hudson High School’s Drug Free Club of America.
- 120 paper grocery bags from Giant Eagle in Twinsburg to first-grade classes at Ellsworth Hill Elementary for a “holidays around the world” project.
Vouchers
The board approved a 2025 renewal of its membership in the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding and EdChoice Voucher Litigation in the amount of $9,002. According to the legislation, 25% of the annual dues are allocated to the coalition operating expenses and 75% to EdChoice voucher litigation. The dues are based on the HCSD student headcount.
Board President Steve DuMauro said 2025 marks the third year of Hudson’s membership in the efforts to drive “reasonable balance in terms of how funding is allocated at the state level to public schools” and the negative impact of diverting funds into non-public schools.
New courses
Other board action included the approval of two new courses. Beginning in the fall, high school students will be able to take Business PreCalculus, which integrates traditional precalculus concepts with practical applications in business, finance and economics; and Trigonometry, a half-credit Credit Flex course intended to bridge students from regular Algebra 2 to AP Precalculus. ∞