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Board hears safety concerns about bus drop-off and update on road project and new start times
Summary
Board members and public speakers raised safety concerns about the bus drop-off/pick-up lane; the superintendent and board said a township road project may mitigate the problem but that monitoring and hands-on management will continue.
Board members and at least one resident raised safety concerns during the March 26 meeting about vehicle flow in the school bus drop-off and pick-up area. The superintendent said the township's planned roadwork may ease congestion but the district will monitor and manage traffic flow.
Why it matters: congestion and mixing of pedestrian and vehicle traffic at arrival and dismissal create safety risks that the district and township must coordinate to address.
A board member described a recent close call where a student ran across the drop-off lane and a car braked suddenly, and asked the administration to inspect the area and propose remedies. Other speakers clarified the location as the Pop Warner/Germanario Field side of the middle-school complex and noted the problem occurs at both drop-off and pickup times.
The superintendent said the larger road-improvement project is planned in phases and will include widening on Crawford's Corner into the high-school complex. "We will most likely go with the status quo, at least initially until we collect some data over the course of a couple of weeks to see the extent to which the modifications have really alleviated that," he said, adding that the district will be "very deliberate in the way that we manage the traffic on campus." Board members said they expect engineers to begin work in the summer and that markings and other mitigation measures are already underway.
Board discussion also referenced recently adjusted school start times and the effect on arrival patterns; members said the administration is monitoring and making operational tweaks.
Ending: The district will monitor the drop-off and pick-up area after initial modifications and coordinate with the township as the road project progresses; no formal vote or directive was recorded at the meeting.
