Keep North Glendale Elementary Green

Playing fields are more needed than parking lots!

Please keep Glendale green. The green space is one of the great things about our town.

All elementary schools in Kirkwood have this issue. Having more parking won’t solve the issue. I’d like to know what accidents have occurred before tax dollars are spent to take away green space?

There is no need to take more green space.

Keep North Glendale green!

215 people have signed this in 48 hours. Clearly your message is jaded (and inaccurate). Sure seems like there is a lot more support against the lot expansion than for it since you are the only one continually posting in favor of it.

This is nonsense. What neighbors did he talk to? Nobody I can find was spoken to. For the past 11 years my house on Alexandra backed up to the field you claim nobody uses. Complete garbage and just not true. Every single day there are people walking dogs, kids playing baseball or soccer or throwing a frisbee on that part of the field. Who are the 90+ staff? On NG’s website they have 67 staff listed. Who are the other 30+ you claim are there everday that aren’t listed in the staff directory? 215 people have signed this in 48 hours. Clearly your

I'll leave you with a few more facts: FACT: NG lot has 77 space and 90 something staff. Leaving some employees and all visiting families with no spots. FACT: The new lot extension will add 64 spots, with 10-15 Visitor spots upfront for volunteers, families picking up sick kids, etc. This will not only provide more parking it will extend the lots, relieving pressure from Sappington road at drop-offand pickup and the surrounding side streets since staff and volunteers will now be in the lot. And we continue to ensure the safety of our playground kids FACT: NG will have close to 600 student next year; hundreds more than when they even added on to the school 5 or 6 years ago. Telling everyone to walk... from Berry Road, from down Manchester, from Oakland, from Meachum Park, etc. is just not feasible. FACT: Dr. Benben individually knocked on doors of some of the concerned neighbors/parties AND reduced the scope of the parking lot / added in a rain garden on the property border to address their concerns. To the school’s knowledge oncerns were heard, addressed and all was well…until this weekend. FACT: Students and Families rarely EVER use this end of the field. “Keep Glendale Green” sound nice. But it’s merely idealistic for most, and self serving for a few others. No one is on that end of the field on a day to day basis. This is backed up by NG staff, PE teachers, most neighbors, playground monitors, and more. Kids usually play soccer on the other end of the field with those goals, and make most use of the playgrounds and the blacktop with the court sections (bike riding, b-ball, etc). The rebuttal that this change is ridiculous for “30 minutes a day” (a gross under-estimation), is that this area is used, maybe 5-10% of the time. FACT: There still will be green space.

Here are my thoughts in hopes of addressing the trust/distrust of the various entities involved, or lack of knowledge in this decision making process. No, it’s not as simple as the district knows best, but you do have to trust the process… or work to change it through proper channels. Just because we were not directly involved or aware of every meeting, discussion, plan or blueprint involving this parking lot expansion, does not mean that none of these concerns or options were considered before coming to the best possible solution, in the majority’s best interest. No one goes into a project like this, multiple years in the making, without proper vetting. NG Parents, you get your say each year when we elect new PTO board members, and you get your input heard at each monthly meeting (or can get cliff notes by reviewing the minutes), or contacting the PTO via email, social media, or face-to-face with any of the volunteer PTO board who I know is readily accessible, visible and available. From there, we must trust that they have heard us and are passing our parent thoughts & concerns along to the proper channels. If you are passionate about this or want to see change with something, please join that school committee or run for the PTO board. KSD Citizens, you get your vote when you elect School Board Members. We just had another election this April; I hope you went to the polls. From there, we trust that those whom we voted into this unpaid, volunteer office, will work sufficiently, on the issues our district faces, which includes: hiring KSD employees (including Superintendents, Principals, & Communications professionals), approving budgets, and making decisions for our schools which are in the best interest of all tax payers. If you are passionate about these issues or seek change, attend monthly School Board Meetings/review minutes so you are aware of the pending issues and the budget, make your concerns known to board members when concerns ar

Grandparents to your stedents

PLEASE keep school green! Healthier for our children!

Can people be encouraged to park on any of the streets within a 2-3block radius? Sitting in a running car for 45 minutes in the parking lot in the winter doesn’t sound like an energy saving option. I drive by at 2:30 and they are already lined up. I guess walking 2 blocks is not considered “exercise.”

Water run off could be a potential problem too.

Would appreciate hearing more about rationale before pushing this through. If there is a legitimate safety issue, ok, but if its to prevent parking on the street for 20 minutes out of the day does not seem worthwhile.

We encourage our kids to get out more and we want to take away space where they can spend time outside. Spending $200k so 45 people don’t have to walk a block for school or an event seems silly. There is no shortage of streets for which people can park on the street.

Find alternative ground cover that can be used as both parking and field ( green pavers). There are multiple solutions if people are willing to come together to talk and brainstorm.

It would be a shame to lose this field space. I believe there is already a paved path around the field...could they widen that and allow access to the side road? That would allow more cars to line up for pickup and people could still walk on that path around the outside of the fields.

Bad for the environment to take away green space.

Please don’t take away the beautiful green space!!!

I definitely object to more parking. Many school parents live very close and could walk, but choose to drive. Our kids need that space for HOURS and hours per day.