HawthorneVillager.com

What ever happened to the old Safety Patrol program, where older students at the school would act basically as crossing guards?

Too much risk for Safety Patrol program. I know JM Denyes had it still but they still worked with the adult crossing guard.

Tim - the school currently has 1060 students. We have more than 70 full time staff. They need most of both parking lots. Occasionally, staff even have to park on the road because the lots are full. (One had her car smashed into by a parent).

We need our playground space for the children. I would be very upset if the board chose to sacrifice that for the convenience of parents. I would also argue about board funds being spent for something like additional parking for parents over funding the needs of our students.

I have heard repeatedly the excuse that parents are picking their children up on the way home from work. Why does that stop you from parking your vehicle in a safe place and walking to pick up your child?

btw i work and i drop off my son at school in the morning. i just park a block away and walk over. he takes the bus home and my husband waits there for him after work. next year he will take the bus in the morning with his brother. i still don't understand why parents need to use the parking lot or park directly infront of the school
just think about how much worse it would be if EVERY parent of the 1060 students decided they needed to drive their kids to school and pick them up again...

and the parents that do walk their kids to school are the ones put at asafety risk.

There definitely is a root cause to the problem.

Daycare mom, I assume you are involved with the parents group at HV since you seem to know a lot about it. is the school pursuing anything or is it just up to the Parents group? Do you know?

Thanks
Matt

What's wrong with kids walking?? When I was in elementary school I had a 20 minute walk to school every morning. At the time I remembered it was a "very long" walk. But now that I look at the old house and school it doesn't look that far between the two. Just I guess when you're young your perception about distance and walking maybe is different.

I think the answer is that parents really worry about the safety of their children a lot more today. That most parents wouldn't feel safe letting their 9 year old walk that far by themselves. I think I may end up doing the same (drive our children to school if it's that far). But I don't blame my parents for making me walk. I remember everyone else walking too.

I can't remember what grade / how old I was when I stopped getting a drive and started walking. I think it was 9 but could be wrong.

What about having people park on Clarke and have someone walk a heard of students there??? Probably some teacher union stuff against it but that would certainly help....
Matt

Yes Matt I am involved in the school council. Just to clarify - it is a SCHOOL council, not a parent group. Our council is made up primarily of parents, but also includes admin (principals), teachers, and non-teaching staff members. We all work together to support the school and it's students.

One option that would help reduce the amount of traffic in the community is for parents to organize a "walking bus" for the students. See this link for an explanation www.walkingbus.com

Children can be walked to a designated "bus stop" near their home or at a safe location to be picked up by vehicle. If anyone is willing to participate in initiating this program for our students, please let me know.

Our staff are already at the maximum number of minutes for supervising students. We cannot ask them to walk a "herd" of children over to Clarke or anywhere else to be picked up. (Many of the staff are volunteering to help close the parking lot, because they are concerned for the safety of our children). I really don't know why we should rely on staff to solve a problem that parents are creating anyway.

Th busiest pick up time is from 3:45 when the bell rings until about 4:00, when all the kids are gone. The vehicles were entering the parking lot as early as 3:00 and stopping in the kiss and ride area and fire route.
What is your idea on how to handle it Tim?

When the vehicles are entering the parking lot at 3:00, the teachers are in class with the students. At 3:45, we have a teacher that is on duty in the parking area who is responsible for keeping our children safe, not to be a parking control officer. In the morning we have one teacher assigned to that area as well. We are fortunate that our principal and vice principals come out and help with the kiss and ride program in the morning and the parking lot in the afternoon when they can, but they do have other responsibilities.

If you and other parents would like the parking lot re-opened and are willing to have enough volunteers out there every afternoon to keep the traffic moving, we can re-visit the situation. Until then, we are doing the best we can.

Hawthorne Village is under a lot of pressure. We are very fortunate that our staff, admin, council and volunteers keep things running as well as they do. There are many schools that are not as successful and have far fewer students and issues to deal with. We need to support our staff and do what we can to help so that our children continue to benefit. Laying blame and expecting more of our staff is not the answer. Parents accepting responsibility will produce much better results.

Wow, I do not know how to respond to that.
That is the 2nd time you basically said it is not the staffs job.

Whose job is it? It is on their property...... there has to be some accountability and responsability there.

Matt

I hope you are not suggesting that I have tunnel vision...

The parking lot is completeyl different in the afternoon because parents have to sit and wait for their kids to come out. In the morning, they drive up, someone opens the door, takes the kids out, closes the door and the vehicle drives out in less than a minute. The vehicles keep moving.

In the afternoon, cars sit and wait in the kiss and drop zone as well as fire routes. When those areas are full and more cars pull in, they start a second and third row of cars parked there. When the students come out, the parents blow the horn, holler and wave at their kids to cross between these rows of parked cars to get in. Once their kids are in the car, they blow the horn at other drivers and try to squeeze out of the rows of cars to be on their way. The teacher is trying to stop the kids from crossing between the rows of cars, trying to get cars to move... There are too many vehicles for one person to control and we do not have any more available. No one listens anyway.

For the record, I am a volunteer and not paid by the school board.
Curious - If you are not picking up your child, who is? Why are you so concerned about this situation if it's not an issue for you?

My wife picks up my kids and walks 2 others home all while pushing my 6 month old in a stroller. i am trying to find out what is going on so my familly does not get killed thank you.

Matt

I pick up my two kids while pushing five more in a stroller and find the situation much better since the lot was closed.

Let's not deteriorate this conversation by getting mad at each other please.