Traffic situation at pick-up. Urgent!

[prin...@sethigh.org]

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

If we are unable to solve the traffic situation at pick-up with the suggestions that I am going to make in this email, we are going to be forced to push the school day back 15 minutes (8:45 to 3:45).  I will present the suggestions first, and then explain why this is our problem (and a new problem) at the end of the email.

The suggestions:

1. If you arrive early (before 3:30), and if you do not get lucky and get one of the premium cul-de-sac spots (parked legally, not blocking a neighbor driveway, and not double parked), you will need to turn around in the cul-de-sac and either find street parking on Aero Ct. or Aero Pl., or go into the garage and park in an actual parking space until your student arrives.  We cannot have cars idling in the driveable part of the garage.
   
   To encourage the garage parking option, and to reward the parents who choose it, we will open up the back gate in the garage to allow a few cars at a time to completely bypass the whole Aero Dr./Aero Ct. intersection.  We will only be able to let a few cars go at a time because we cannot back up traffic in the apartment building's parking lot.
    
2. Pick-up at Cabrillo Heights park and completely bypass the Aero Dr./Aero Ct. traffic.
   
   
3. Pick-up anytime between 3:45 and 4:30 and see less and less traffic on Aero Ct. the later you arrive.
   
   

Why this is a problem, and, more importantly, our problem

California law mandates that all public high schools now have a start time after 8:30 AM.  There are also laws about the minimum number of instructional minutes that are required per school year.  This means that with an 8:30 AM start, the earliest we can end school is 3:30 PM.  The French school, Lycee Francais, that is on Aero Dr. is only accessible via Aero Ct., and their school gets out at 3:15 PM.  We did not used to have much overlap with them because our parents were mostly gone by the time those parents arrived for pick-up.  With our new school hours, though, we now overlap completely with them and we have hundreds of families trying to access Aero Ct. at the same time.  We have always had a challenge with our parents lining up early to beat traffic, but we didn't use to back up traffic on Aero Dr. and we were only fighting with ourselves.  Now we have many more cars that are impacted and our parents who are stopping in the road trying to get to the cul-de-sac are preventing the Lycee Francais parents (and our parents!) from even turning onto our street.  Our decisions are not just slowing down the pick-up for the other parents; we are actually preventing them from doing the pick-up.

So, that's why it is our problem, and ours alone to try to resolve.  The long-term solution would be to add additional lanes to Aero Ct., or give the Lycee Francais direct access to Aero Dr., but in the short term, we need to figure out a way to ease the traffic.

We would all prefer to not move the end time to 3:45 PM and I am sure many parents and students feel the same, but if we cannot solve the traffic problem ourselves, that will be our only option.

Please help us resolve the problem by accepting one of our 3 suggestions.  We will help guide you to the right place if you need help.  Please don't take your frustration and anger out on us.  We're just trying to move the traffic along.  :) 

We will not be directing traffic today (due to prior engagements that we have), but we will be opening the back garage gate to reward the parents who read this email and want to try the new option early.  Tomorrow (Wed) is when we will actively start directing traffic into the garage.

Thanks!

Dr. McCurdy