Officials at School Street Elementary School are asking parents
who drop their children off before school to do so on the side of
the building at North Center Street starting Monday.

Principal Sheldon Pugrant said the need to change the drop-off
area was decided when they realized there were safety issues with
parents letting their children off on School Street while school
buses were unloading at the same time each morning.

“There could be 25 to 30 kids getting dropped off and there are
19 buses pulling in,” said Pugrant. “It might be two buses lined
up, a car, and another bus. Then, the car is trapped.”

School Resource Officer Dave Feely agrees.

“Some drop off their kids on the other side of the street and
they need to cross in front of on-coming traffic,” he said.

Pugrant said the lineup of cars and buses also causes the buses
to be lined up further down the street and out of the view of
officials.

“This will be a new step in the configuration of the bus
drop-offs,” added Pugrant. “We want them dropped off at the side
door on North Center Street. This will be our trial to see how the
changes will go next year.”

Pugrant explained that the playground behind the school will be
taken out and in its place, a parking area for the buses will be
made before the start of the next school year.

Officials ask that those parents who drop their children off at
school do so between 8 and 8:30 a.m. beginning Monday. They also
ask that children not be dropped off before 8 a.m. because there
will be nobody on duty to supervise them.

When they are dropped off there, they will go into one of two
doors and down into the cafeteria where they will be supervised by
an aide.

Pugrant explained that at this time when children are dropped
off they either stand in front of the building, or go inside the
foyer to wait to be let into the hallways before school.

“And all over the grass out front,” said Feely, who was asked by
school Superintendent Sandra Romanowski to go down to School Street
to evaluate the situation with parents dropping children off and
buses arriving at the same time.

“The mornings were most chaotic,” said Feely, describing the
situation of children being let off across the street between buses
and cars or sometimes the parent would stop the car and let them
off in the middle of the street forcing the child to run between
vehicles and into the path of traffic.

Pugrant said another positive side to getting the children to be
dropped off on North Center Street is that they will be able to go
inside and out of bad weather and the elements before school.

“This way they will be able to come in and be supervised in the
cafeteria,” added Pugrant. “We didn’t want to change the process
altogether.”

He said next year the children will be dismissed out of the rear
of the building. He added that it may be possible in next year’s
school year to drop the children off again in front, but that they
would have to evaluate the situation at that time.

Feely added that there will be a presence for the first couple
of weeks by the police force whether it is himself or others to
help parents understand their needs in seeing that children are
dropped off on North Center Street.