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REPUBLIC -- Right now, 30 percent of Republic-Michigamme students walk or ride a bicycle to school.  Superintendent Vicki Lempinen says that number can be and should be higher, and she's looking to the Safe Routes to School program for help.

"We know that childhood obesity is a problem right now, and this will encourage students to have a form of activity--walking or biking to school--and hopefully it'll create some new methods of doing things instead of getting a ride," says Lempinen.

Safe Routes to School is a national program that provides Federal grant money to schools.  The schools spend the money on making the surrounding areas more walker-friendly.  It started in Michigan in 2003, and since then, more than 400 schools across the state have received funding.

"We have a lot of parents that are driving their kids to school when they could be walking.  We find a lot of kids live close by the school and they still are getting rides, so we're just trying to provide that physical activity as far as that goes," says Bobbi Ayotte, Safe Routes to School Coordinator from the Marquette County Health Department.

Republic joins other school districts in the area--Negaunee, Ishpeming, Gwinn--in applying for the grant money.

The Republic Safe Routes to School team spent most of the day outside figuring out, what else?  The safe routes to school.  The Federal funding will cover everything from painting new crosswalks to creating new sidewalks within a two-mile radius of the school.

They worked together with a planner from U.P. Engineers and Architects on a "walking audit" to figure out exactly what they'd do with the Federal funds.

"Crosswalk enhancement, repainting, different types of painting, different types of pavement surfaces and adding sidewalks, maintaining sidewalks around the school, also possibly multi-use paths connecting schools to neighborhoods or parks," says Matt Bergeon, Planner from U.P. Engineers and Architects.

The next step is for the school to apply for the funding; then it's just a waiting game.