NORWICH – With students and parents across the county preparing for Wednesday and the first day of school, the Norwich City Police Department – as it does every year – is making student safety a priority. Specifically, the city’s PD will focus on students’ travels to and from their respective schools.

“The Norwich City School District has over 2,500 students, additionally Holy Family and Valley Heights Academy have hundreds more,” said Norwich City Police Chief Joseph Angelino. “Add to those numbers the teachers and staff who are all converging on the same locations at nearly the same time and there could be problems unless people are alert and patient.”

As such, Angelino noted some changes in regards to school crossing guards for the 2013-2014 school year, namely the posting of a crossing guard at Norwich High School in the area of the Davis Street walkway (near the high school parking lot exit); another at Beebe Avenue and South Broad Street (assisting pedestrians going to and from Perry Browne Elementary School); and the discontinuation of a crossing guard post on South Broad and Hale streets.