Reyes Elementary pleads with City for flashing lights

Officials at a brand new Borderland school say their students are not safe and that’s because the City of El Paso hasn’t installed flashing lights in their school zone.

Canutillo Independent School District’s Reyes Elementary is located on Northern Pass near Redd Road on the West Side. District officials say they were told by City officials it’ll take more than a year to get flashing lights installed, leaving them concerned it’s an accident waiting to happen.

“We want to work with City authorities to making sure our streets, our schools are safe,” said CISD Superintendent Pedro Galaviz, who indicated the district has been pleading with the City to install flashing lights in the new Reyes Elementary school zone.

ABC-7 asked Galaviz how long he was told the process will take?

“Eighteen months,” Galaviz said. “To me, that’s too long because we school started on August 24th.”

A spokesman for the City of El Paso’s engineering department told ABC-7 that Reyes Elementary has requested flashing lights like the ones already installed in front of Canutillo High School. He said they have yet to receive a check from the district, however. He added that the cost of the lights per zone is $60,000 to $140,000.

“We’re ready to do whatever we have to do to make that happen,” Galaviz said. “They could have called me and I would have walked down there myself and paid for it.”

City officials told ABC-7 its premature to give an estimate of time for installation. However, they said it will not take 18 months.

“It would help tremendously, I think,” said Reyes Elementary principal Dr. Debra Kerney, who has taken matters into her own hands by volunteering as an extra crossing guard at the school. “I just saw where there’s a need. I really care about the kids being safe. I’m hearing that it takes until maybe June even to get those flashing lights. I think that’s too long. That will be the end of our first year of school and I’m afraid to see what could happen if we don’t get those flashing lights immediately.”

City spokesman Martin Bartlett told ABC-7 the signed agreement for installation of the flashing lights was returned to the City on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Canutillo district said the school board approved its request for the lights back in June, but he was unsure when the initial request was made to the City.