Many of you saw that I had the Greendale Police outside with me on Wednesday afternoon. We spent almost 2 hours together looking at a map of our parking lot and then going outside to watch our afternoon pick-up procedure.
A couple of take-aways from that conversation:
1.
He agreed the area inside that we were holding our K3-4
th
graders in the mornings was too small for the amount of students we have.
2.
His main concern was the congestion at the south entrance with cars entering and exiting our parking lot. As a result, all cars should exit via Churchway.
3.
He does not want any cars parking on Churchway.
4.
He did not see an improved method to what we are implementing
With the drop-off in the mornings, one of the guidelines is that the parent in the car is not getting out of the car to help the child—the child needs to be self-sufficient—and able to exit the car quickly. It would also help if the child’s backpack is in the seat with the child and not in the back trunk or hatch. These two changes mean cars are moving through the line faster.
Thursday at pick up time, we had all cars through the line in 13 minutes (timing when all students are outside at 3:00 pm). That is really good. Today we opened the doors 5 minutes earlier and the car line was not backed up to the entrance by 7:30—cars were moving pretty quickly. We will continue with doors opening in the mornings at 7:25 am.
I am an optimist and I think this system will work. We will continue to assess and tweak as needed. I do ask that we continue to remain civil to each other and follow all rules of the road. I ask that we treat each other with understanding and patience. As I told the students today, our goal for the school year is kindness and you show that through words and actions. Let’s be positive role models of kindness for our students.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Stallmann
