Safety for Mount Pleasant School Kids
To Mr. James O'Neill
Interim Superintendent of Schools,
West Orange Board of Education
April 20, 2014
Dear Mr. O’Neill,
As concerned parents of Mount PleasantElementary school, we would like to bring to your attention the terrible conditions with the parking and drop-off set up that currently exists at the school. The current set up is unsafe for the kids and very inconvenient for everyone involved – employees, parents, and the kids.
The parking for school staff is quite inadequate, and many employees are forced to park on the street. The “drop-off” area of the street is very small, leading to traffic jams at drop-off and pick-up times and often completely blocks the street. What is even more disturbing is that when the kids are dropped off at school they are forced to cross the staff parking lot to get to school’s entrance. While a path around the parking lot exists, it is inconvenient and has been completely blocked by piles of snow for months. The path is often covered with ice and is quite unsafe on its own, and extremely unsafe when kids are required to navigate around parked and moving vehicles in the parking lot.
We also feel that there is a simple solution to this problem that should not require any significant monetary outlays. Whatever the costs involved, they would almost certainly be less then having to pay for lawsuits should a child be injured while crossing the parking lot.
There is a very large, almost completely unused, area attached to the school between Ralph Road, Ellison Avenue, and O’Connor Park. Some of that unused area could be turned into a staff parking lot, freeing the current staff parking lot to be used as a child drop off area. It is an easy solution that benefits everyone. Employees will have a larger parking lot that will accommodate them all, parents will have a good drop off area, the street will be clear of traffic jams and, most importantly, kids will not have to dodge moving cars to get from the drop-off area to school doors.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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