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Fielding Elementary principal urges council to address parking and overcrowding
Summary
Fielding Elementary’s principal, identified in public comment as Mr. Green, told the council the school’s enrollment and staffing changes have sharply increased vehicle congestion and requested two portable classrooms and a staff parking lot that is on next year’s budget line item.
Mr. Green, identified at the meeting as the principal of Fielding Elementary School, used the council’s public-comment period to press for short- and long-term measures to ease repeated pickup/drop-off congestion and to address growing enrollment.
“Thanks for having me tonight,” Mr. Green said, then described rapid enrollment and staff changes that have led to more vehicles on neighborhood streets. He told the council that paraprofessional staffing rose from about three last year to roughly 15 this year, creating approximately a dozen extra cars at arrival and dismissal and causing near-blocking of neighbor driveways and parking at the nearby post office.
He said the district’s facilities director, Corey Thompson, told him the school’s plan to add a staff parking lot on the north side is a line item in next year’s budget. Mr. Green described the proposed work as adding a sidewalk against the fence with slotted, angled parking to move staff off front-facing spots and free visitor parking.
Short-term needs: Mr. Green asked the council to consider two additional portable classrooms and to allow site engineering to determine placement for pad pours; he said the school expects a new fifth-grade class next year with roughly 109 fifth graders and that portables would be used to manage growth.
Traffic and safety suggestions: Residents and council members suggested several mitigations — encouraging bus use where practical, a crossing guard, using side streets to relieve Main Street congestion, experimenting with diagonal/angled striping on short stretches of road, and having the district or city engineer review the site before any striping or curb work is done. Speakers raised constraints such as leach fields and a buried irrigation line that may limit paving options.
Next steps: Mr. Green offered to coordinate with Corey Thompson and to provide engineering specifications for council review; council members agreed to put follow-up on an upcoming agenda when the school can provide concrete plans.
Why it matters: The combination of rising enrollment and constrained neighborhood streets has produced repeated safety and access concerns for residents, parents, and postal patrons. The school’s request for portables and the planned parking line item could reduce congestion if implemented, but both require site engineering and funding approvals.
