For the first month of school, traffic in the morning has been heavy due to changes in drop-off and pick-up patterns and more student drivers. Approximately, 25 buses, 500+ students and staff vehicles and 200+ parent vehicles are out in front of the school every morning from 6:40-7:20. As a result, the oncoming traffic is frustrating for many, but the administration is continuing to revise the new plan to help alleviate the issues.

The plan to temporarily shut down the band circle, where parents in previous years could drop off students, was one of the first changes made this year. According to assistant principal Mr.Ralph Rapino, the main reason for shutting down the band circle at the start of the school year was to “try something new and condense traffic towards the bus drop-off area.” 

Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. Senior and student driver Shreya Gorawala expressed her frustrations regarding the situation, claiming, “I wish the school would tell more freshmen to take the bus and tell the parents to stay out of the lot!”

On the other hand, sophomore Rose McGee, who gets dropped off in the mornings, said, “I believe the student drivers are the problem, taking up the parking space in the mornings and increasing oncoming traffic.” 

At the end of the day, however, both shared the pain of having to fill out a late slip on multiple occasions.  Rose said, “I have been marked late multiple times and traffic became the usual answer as to why.” 

Freshman Kerry Hunt shared her pain, adding, “I got to school at about 7:10 one day and we didn’t even get into the loop in front of the school until about 7:25 because of the large number of people at the light.” 

Shreya also commented, “What is most frustrating is that we are expected to follow school rules and be on time, but we can’t because it’s out of our hands.”

When the band-circle re-opened on Sept. 2, significant changes occurred within the first few days. 

Mr. Rapino also added, “Officer Mary Novak [also] immensely helped by directing the cars in different directions.” 

Kerry agreed, noting that “Officer Novak guiding traffic helps because then people won’t take time deciding where to go. If there are too many people in one place, then [she] can direct them to the less crowded loop.”

With that being said, though, parking continues to be a hassle. As Mr. Rapino noted, there has been an increase in the number of student drivers this year than in previous years, with roughly 200 student vehicles parked every morning out of the 250 parking spots available in addition to the 300 other faculty vehicles. 

Thankfully, a potential solution for reducing oncoming parent drop-off traffic and providing additional parking spots is underway in the back of the school. Construction is planned to be completed later in the fall by sometime in November. 

On one last note, Mr. Rapino wishes to leave the students, faculty and parents with a message: “Stay patient in the mornings, maybe leave a little earlier and overall, do not get frustrated. We are working to make the morning smoother for everyone!”