Changes in Intermediate School traffic flow outlined
Pea Ridge School officials sent a letter home with students from the Intermediate School clarifying traffic for car and bus riders. The text follows:
There has been some confusion regarding how we are releasing our intermediate students at the end of the school day. This very busy time of the day can be frustrating when you are squeezed for time in your busy lives. We will be implementing some changes immediately to ensure we are releasing students as safely and efficiently as possible so everyone can get to their afternoon events or appointments. The following paragraphs outline the changes we will be implementing regarding buses, car rider line, and walkers. We are no longer allowing parents to walk up and get their child out of car rider line.
Early check out — Early check out of students needs to be done before 3 pm. Students will not be allowed to be checked out after 3 p.m. This 10-minute window will allow our staff the necessary time needed to prepare for dismissal.
Buses — There are no changes in how we will be operating the district’s bus routes. Route times and schedules will remain the same.
Car rider line— We will continue to have parents enter the campus from Davis Street but we will be adjusting how we load students. We will have parents pull further down the car rider lane to increase the number of students that can be loaded at one time. This will require some getting familiar with over the next week or so. We will have extra staff assisting to ensure we are all on the same page.
Walkers — Our walker population has increased dramatically from last year and we will be adjusting our release time to ensure we are able to get everyone to the intersection of Curtis and Pickens in one trip. We will take our students who are walking after the first wave of buses has loaded. This time will be very consistent once our readjustment is complete. Students who are walking will be escorted to the four-way intersection of Curtis and Pickens. Our crossing guard will ensure our students get across safely.
The map outlines the traffic flow for the Intermediate School campus.
“I understand this is not a perfect solution but there rarely is,” according to assistant superintendent Keith Martin. ‘Our goal is to ensure everyone gets home safely and that may require all of us to be patient with each other as we adjust our end of day release procedures. I do want to thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.”