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Board hears repeated concerns about field usage and evening pick-up safety at Abington Heights athletic facilities
Summary
Board members reported heavy evening use of the athletic 'pit' and described a hazardous evening pick-up situation after practices that left students and parents walking near moving traffic; members said the district must develop a safer bus pick-up/drop-off plan for traveling teams and multiple events.
During the Oct. 8 meeting, board members and volunteers raised safety concerns related to heavy evening use of the district athletic fields and parking congestion.
One speaker described the stadium "pit" as being used more than 10 times in a recent month for junior high, ninth grade, and junior varsity football, noting that coaches consider the extra field vitally important. A separate report from board member and volunteer Missus Tierney described a recent Monday evening when two busloads of runners, a van and concurrent field use left "0 parking in the high school," required students to be dropped off and walk back to the field house, and created long parent pickup lines extending to Gravel Pond Road and down Noble Road. Tierney said lighting at the field house felt inadequate that evening and said she feared a crash or injury.
"Safety was a huge violation, and I was really concerned that a student or a parent was gonna run into another car because it was an absolute nightmare," Tierney said, asking the board to consider bus pick-up and drop-off arrangements for traveling teams.
The matter was discussed as unfinished business and no formal policy change or vote was taken. Board members acknowledged the concerns and said they would look for operational solutions to avoid repeat incidents when multiple programs use district facilities in the same evening.
