PORT ORANGE, Fla. – A set of newly-installed speed bumps in the parent loop at Sugar Mill Elementary is one of many safety improvements that Volusia County Schools says are coming to the area, where a fourth-grade student was struck and killed about a month ago.
ShaoLan Kamaly, 10, was riding her bike to Sugar Mill Elementary the morning of May 24 when she was hit near the school’s entrance by a vehicle that was exiting after dropping off another student, according to Port Orange police.
“She’s there at 7:08 dropping her kid off. She’s speeding through an intersection. It’s five miles an hour, there’s a stop sign, there’s a stop bar. She chose not to do that,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a news conference. “I’m 19 school cross guards short now. Like everybody else, you can’t hire. So now, I think we have to sit down with the PTA, the school administration, with the city and come up with a plan.”
Kamaly’s death spurred calls for safety improvements at the school. News 6 spoke with her family, who told us they supported the other parents at the school who were asking for more police presence and crossing guards.
“This was the final straw to the parents, staff, PTA and everything,” said Rae Hill, a Sugar Mill Elementary parent who helped start a petition to the Volusia County School Board for police officers to direct traffic at all district elementary schools.
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Flo Keeton lives a block away from Sugar Mill Elementary. She told News 6 she’s tired of people driving fast in the area.
“When you are running late, it doesn’t seem to matter to a lot of the parents, which is really disheartening. I see them coming up and down this road so fast,” Keeton said. “This is not the first incident unfortunately. The little girl that died, it’s horrible and heartbreaking.”
The speed bumps unveiled Thursday went up in conjunction with groundwork on a new right-hand turn lane along Charles Street leading into the school, the district said on social media. The post included photos of Florida Power & Light personnel preparing land that the district unanimously surplussed to Port Orange at a school board meeting on Tuesday.
Ron Young, director of planning and construction for Volusia County Schools, presented the surplus resolution at the meeting alongside district Chief Operating Officer Patty Corr.
“What we’re proposing is that we declare that piece of property surplus because as you may or may not be aware, there is a neighborhood that is being built on Sugar Mill, or next to Sugar Mill; it basically wraps around the campus and we’re afraid it would cause additional traffic problems, so that is the ask at this point” Young said.
The new turn lane is expected to ease traffic patterns by allowing school-bound cars to stack behind one another in their own space and not block the main roadway, according to Corr.
ADJ Madeline Commons LLC will construct the right turn lane on Charles Street at Sugar Mill Elementary; the project includes sidewalk improvements on approximately 1,320 square feet and 0.030 acres more or less on school board property and the restoration of a stormwater drainage system located on the eastern boundary of the school. The current right turn lane into Sugar Mill Elementary will be extended and is anticipated to provide a longer off-site stacking lane into the school’s parent loop. The approval of the proposed project and entry onto school board property to complete these improvements will be memorialized in a Memorandum of Agreement between the School Board and ADJ Madeline Commons.
The proposed sidewalk will be deeded to the City of Port Orange, and the project will be funded and executed by ADJ Madeline Commons LLC. Once finished, the City of Port Orange will be the owner and responsible for all maintenance of the turn lane, sidewalk, and stormwater system associated with the off-site improvements.
The proposed project start date is Summer 2024 and it is anticipated to be completed before students return to school.
Resolution 2024-12 Declaring Property as Surplus | Agenda Item Details | Background | go.boarddocs.com/fla/vcsfl/Board.nsf/Public (excerpt)
Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Todd Smith, the district’s director of safety and security, joined Corr for further comments on takeaways from the meeting.
“A turn lane will be added outside of the school — which was voted on tonight — that allows us to stack 11 to 14 vehicles in the turn lane which gets more cars off the streets. We’re also adding signage to try to correct parent behavior. We’ll be sending out messenger notification to the parents, again to correct parent behavior, and then finally trees are going to be removed to increase visibility,” Smith said. “Those are the things that we know we are doing, there are many other things that we have considered and explored and are on the table but a lot of those require assistance from other stakeholders.”
The district in its post thanked Port Orange City Hall for its help in making the safety improvements and promised that more were coming, looking to a future meeting — to be held prior to the start of school — where the changes will be shared with the community. A date had not been solidified at the time of this report.
Kamaly’s family has established a GoFundMe to help with a memorial and with legal fees. As of Sunday morning, more than $14,800 had been raised.
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