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A seemingly routine operational change recently at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC), involving pickup and drop off of children has provoked a sharp criticism from a parent, also a traffic engineer, and a threat to withdraw children from the program. The "story" can best be gathered by reading the original message to parents, the response from Mr. Jay Mello, a parent and a civil engineer, and comment from Superintendent Giguere, solicited by Observer.
1. LETTER TO PARENTS
Good morning ECDC Families,
After participating in managing arrival and dismissal the last few weeks and reviewing feedback from several parents, teachers, and staff members, I have decided to change the Arrival and Dismissal Procedures starting Monday, January 8th. This change will make arrival and dismissal more efficient and allow families to interact with teachers, staff, and other families.
Starting Monday, we will ask all families to park their cars in the parking lot and walk their child(ren) to their teacher. Please check the attached schedule and map for the arrival and dismissal times and the location of your child’s teacher. A paper copy will also be going home in your child’s backpack.
In order to ensure that every student arrives at ECDC safe and ready to learn, please follow the following guidelines. Please share with ANYONE who is transporting your child.
1. Each teacher has an “assigned” arrival and dismissal time. They will be in the designated spot daily, holding signs with your child’s assigned color.
2. Please plan on being ready to drop off or pick up your child at your assigned time.
3. For the safety of all our little ones, please
a. Drive SLOWLY
b. Only park in the spots indicated for “parent parking” on the attached map.
c. There is NO PARKING in the van loop.
d. HOLD onto your child in the parking lot, ALWAYS!
e. NEVER leave a child unattended in a vehicle
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.
Regards,
Miss Paula
2. PARENTAL RESPONSE
Good Morning Lucas, David, and Paula,
I hope you all had a pleasant and relaxing holiday season.
Our son is currently enrolled at ECDC, so we received the email below this morning. I worked on developing solutions to drop off/pick up at ECDC while I was employed with the Town, so I fully appreciate the complications involved with developing a safe and efficient solution, however, what is being proposed in this email is not the answer, and quite frankly, exceptionally unsafe.
With respect to this issue, there are two competing interests at play; efficient vehicle queuing and pedestrian safety. The system that has been in place this year to this point results in occasional vehicle queuing issues (impacting convenience), however, it eliminates conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians, which in turn provides for significantly enhanced pedestrian safety. The system proposed in the email below does the exact opposite; it sacrifices pedestrian safety for a minor reduction in vehicle queuing complications. The proposed system does not follow any established guidelines or principles regarding pedestrian safety or school zone safety. There is no dedicated crosswalk in this area nor is there sidewalk along the west side of the building. These factors will result in unpredictable pedestrian crossings as pedestrians are not channelized to a specific pathways and crossing locations. In this situation, pedestrians will cross at the most convenient location for them, which is perpendicular to their own vehicle. This creates significant difficulties for drivers as crossings are unpredictable and can occur literally anywhere.
This system also creates hardships for numerous families with students at ECDC. I am confident in saying that multiple families with students at ECDC have more than one young child. The proposed system doesn’t allow for a second (or third plus) child to be safely left in their car seat while a student is dropped off. Under the current system, an individual parent now has to navigate an unprotected and unmarked pedestrian crossing with multiple children. I don’t feel an explanation as to why this is burdensome is needed, however, it doesn’t seems as if this was fully considered. Stating “Never Leave a child unattended in a vehicle” does not address the issue in a realistic fashion and is tone-deaf. A third child will be joining our family this spring, which further highlights the failures of the proposed system. Asking individual adults to wrangle three children across a parking lot is simply unrealistic, insensitive to the difficulty in doing such, and markedly unsafe. Additionally, many students are dropped off or picked up by grandparents who may have difficulty with a longer walk or struggle to safe cross the parking lot with multiple children. Bluntly, the proposed solution is counter to guidance laid out in the FHWA Safe Routes to School Guide (SRTS Guide: Student Drop-off and Pick-up Tools (saferoutesinfo.org)) and accepted civil engineering practice and as such, exposes the school system and Town to significant liability. Has a traffic safety professional been consulted in this matter? Below is the from the SRTS Guide section titled Separating Motor Vehicles from Pedestrians and Bicyclists:
“To further reduce conflicts, school facilities can be arranged to eliminate or reduce the number of children walking through parking lots. Children should walk around parking lots on dedicated walkways or sidewalks. If this is not possible, clearly marked walkways through parking lots with adult or older student monitors should be used, and speed calming treatments such as humps or bumps should be employed in the parking lots.”
If the proposed system is implemented, my family will have no choice but to end our enrollment at ECDC as the proposed system doesn’t allow us to keep our children safe during drop off and pick up. Respectfully, I suggest that a traffic professional with a background in school zone safety be consulted for both short-term and long-term solutions for ECDC drop off and pick up. Realistically, this issue needs a long-term solution, in my opinion an enhanced queuing area, but in the immediacy a solution that doesn’t sacrifice safety for convenience should be implemented. As a father and licensed civil engineer with extensive experience in school zone traffic safety, I implore you to reconsider this proposal and leave the current drop-off and pick up system in place. In my professional opinion, due to the number of un-consolidated crossings and pedestrian-vehicle conflict, it is a matter of time before a pedestrian is injured or killed following this procedure.
Thank you for your time and your attention to this matter.
Jay Mello, P.E.
3. RESPONSE SOLICITED FROM SUPERINTENDENT
ECDC returned to the arrival and drop-off procedures that had been in place for nearly 20 years. During that time, as the number of families dropping off increased with the growing enrollment, some changes were made to accommodate them (i.e., designated staff parking and staggered arrivals). We returned to the previous process, where parents/guardians park their cars and walk their students to the door. We continue exploring opportunities to improve our processes and are currently consulting with the Department of Public Works in this effort.
Also, this decision was reviewed and approved by ECDC Franklin School Resource Officer.
Respectfully,
Lucas Giguere
Superintendent
4. STAY TUNED....
