Additional Carpool Information - Please read today

*If you have questions, please contact the individual schools directly.  Thank you!

Dear Parents,

For the most part carpool pick-up and drop-off is improving rapidly and we are reducing our times for each substantially.  Today we substantially finished Junior High drop-off only one minute after the morning bell; we finished pick-up in 15 minutes.  At the Elementary drop-off is going well and pick up was largely complete in about 20 minutes.  We can do better than this and do still have some safety concerns we need to address.   Please help us with the following items that are still causing problems:

Parents with Junior High and Elementary students

·         Please do not arrange to have your Junior High student pick up their Elementary sibling and then meet you at the Elementary unless they are just picking up the student to walk home.  For security reasons we will not be allowing Junior High students in the Elementary building after school.  (We have already found that having students meet and then get in their parents cars at the Elementary, it slows down our pick-up process substantially and causes safety concerns). We will not be allowing parents to pick-up kids from both schools at the Elementary.  We will allow Junior High students to meet their Elementary siblings and then walk home from there IF parents send their Elementary students with a hand-written note giving the school permission to release their Elementary students to their siblings.  Junior High students may only meet the Elementary students on the grass behind the bike rack and must exit the property immediately after meeting their siblings.  If Junior High students cause any disruption to the Elementary students they will not be allowed on-site at the Elementary at all.

Junior High Parents

·         DO NOT let your students off in the morning on Mt. Ogden Peak Drive.  Not only does this put your student in danger, but it blocks up traffic behind you and causes a safety hazard for other parents and students.  We are going to ask our local police officials to ticket when they see this happening.

·         Please pull forward during both drop-off and pick-up to the top of the loading lane.  (Pull as close as you can to the dumpsters at the top of the lane).  This will allow us to get students and cars through quickly and safely.  Also, do not direct or allow your students to get into your car anywhere other than on that red-striped loading lane.  Students walking in-between parked cars and being hit by an oncoming passing car is one of our greatest safety concerns. 

Elementary Parents

·         Please DO NOT arrive early at the Elementary for drop-off in the morning.  We are having a substantial number of kids at the school before we have people to supervise available.  Drop-off is from 7:30-8:00, please try to drop your students during this time.

·         Also, please DO NOT arrive early to pick students up in the afternoon.   Because parents are stacking in front of the Elementary, we are now overflowing onto Mt. Ogden Peak Drive and blocking traffic there.  This is blocking Junior High parents from being able to pick-up their students on time and obstructing the street for neighbors as well.  This is an area of great concern for us, and for the City.  To that end, if you arrive before 2:55 to pick-up your elementary student, or if we have cars stacking onto Mt. Ogden Peak before the dismissal bell rings, we will be asking you to leave the school and come back during the appropriate time.    Please know that pick-up will go faster if you just arrive on-time. 

Thank you all for your assistance, patience and ongoing support!

Providence Hall

Carpool Update - Please Read!

All,

We want to thank you for your patience and assistance with our first morning drop-off.  We also want to ask for your patience and assistance with our afternoon pick-up today.   Please know that both are going to take longer today, and through this first week, while our parents and students are learning the system.  We ask for your patience during that time.   Do not arrive early, and please plan for the possibility that we will take over an hour to get through pick-up the first day.   We are going to keep the students in their classes until their name is called to go down for pick-up (similar to the Elementary system for those who are familiar with that).  We can assure you from past experience that this time will decrease as students, parents and staff all get used to the routine. 

Afternoon Student Pick-up

·         Please have your pick-up card with you family name on it prominently displayed in the front window when you drive through pick-up today.  We will be calling your student down from class as soon as you enter the school grounds, but we need to be able to see the name to do so.

·         We would ask that you please DO NOT park and get out to get your student.  If you have some unique situation that requires you to do so, we would ask that you give your name to one of the supervisors with the phones so that they may call that student down and have you meet on the front steps of the school.   We ask that you not come in to the front office as our front office staff will be otherwise engaged and will not have access to the PA system to call your student.  (Our PA system will be dedicated to the call-in’s from carpool pick-up for the hour after the school day ends.)

·         We will not be allowing parents to park on the North side of Mt. Ogden Peak Drive.   We don’t want students or parents crossing the busy street and we need that area for cars to drive.   If you must park on the street, we need you to park on the South side (school side) of the street to the West of the school.  You may also park in the school parking lot if spots are available.

·         If you are having your student walking or biking home, or walking to the church on Juniper Crest, they will be released from the school shortly before we begin the car pick-up.   We ask that you not have your students plan to meet you anywhere on the street in Mt. Ogden Peak Drive given traffic and safety concerns.  At this time, the LDS church has not objected to us having students and parents meet there – but we need to maintain good behavior for that to continue too.

·         If you have been planning to have your Junior High student pick-up your Elementary student, we would ask that you not do so unless your students are walking together to another location (e.g. home).  We cannot allow the Junior High students into the Elementary during pick-up because of the confusion it causes.  Today we will be having any Junior High students already planning to meet their Elementary siblings meet at the Elementary bike racks, from there we will call-in for the Elementary student to come out and meet your student there.  (The Elementary student will have to be able to identify the Jr. High student as someone they are supposed to go home with as we have not got permission slips set up yet to accommodate this situation.)

Morning Drop-off

·         Please DO NOT drop your students, or allow them to bike/walk to the school before it is set to open.  The Junior High opens at 7:15 and the Elementary opens at 7:30.  The buildings will NOT be open before then and your students will not be supervised.  We had a large number of students arriving early today, and that proved disruptive and problematic for our staff and others.

Lunch Program

·         We are not set up to have students pay for lunch at the register.  We need to have money turned in to the lunch box before 9 in the morning.

·         Also, we had a lot of dropped-off sack lunches today.   For today we did deliver those lunches to the students, however, we will not do so in the future.  Starting tomorrow, if a student forgets their lunch they will need to come to the front office to pick up the lunch as we don’t have enough people to be doing so and still cover everything we need at the front desk.

Thank you for your ongoing support and patience!

Providence Hall