ROCKWOOD – Parents of Harris Mill Public School students have expressed safety concerns about what they are calling a “chaotic” parking lot and drop-off situation.
Harris Mill, located at the rear of a subdivision in Rockwood, is facing some criticism, with parents concerned about safety as traffic flow over the past two years has increased with fewer families opting to take the bus.
The school parking lot has been closed since September 2020 as a result.
Parent Tammy Johnston, said she understood the decision to close the parking lot at the beginning of the pandemic.
“That was due to COVID reasons and keeping parents off of the property to keep numbers down, people social distancing, and that sort of thing,” she said.
“So that kind of made a little bit of sense. But it’s still closed and now the reasoning has changed.”
In a Feb. 4 email to the Advertiser, Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) spokesperson Heather Loney said the board is aware of the concerns around traffic at the school.
“The school’s parking lot has been closed since September 2020 due to increased traffic flow, as a result of fewer families using the bus,” she explained.
“At this time, and prior to September 2020, there were very significant student and pedestrian safety issues, so the decision was made to close the school parking lot to parent drop-off/pick-up.”
Johnson said she’s “never had a problem and I’ve had my kids there for five years.”
Loney noted it’s not uncommon for schools to restrict access to the parking lot during pick-up and drop-off times.
The school has requested parents park on adjacent streets and walk their kids to school, which Johnston noted is down a street that only has one sidewalk.
Johnston explained parents now have to park on the surrounding streets in order to drop their children off, causing increased traffic congestion for neighbouring residents.
Since bringing their concerns to the school, Johnston said the school has placed a supervising teacher at the end of a pathway that connects the rear entrance of the school to Parkinson Drive.
“They’re all very makeshift kind of non-solutions,” she explained.
“Many times, I’ve seen many cars and people and kids try to get out and dodging traffic and moving in and out of traffic. “
Johnston added, “There’s only one sidewalk over there and it’s very, very dangerous. My concern is obviously that one of the children are going to get hurt or someone’s going to get hurt.
“But also with the snow, it makes it that much more chaotic.”
Cars attempt to maneuver traffic on Wheeler Street, one of the adjacent streets to the school. Photo by Paige Peacock
Johnston said she’s received no tangible plans from the school to address the situation.
“Nothing is really coming of it at all,” she said. “There’s no traction at all.”
The school has put in place strategies to alleviate some of the traffic at the front of the school, Loney explained, by asking all parents with children in Grades 1 to 5 to access the school using the back entrance, off Parkinson Drive.
The school has encouraged Grade 1 to 5 families to drop off their children and continue driving – a similar format to the “kiss and ride” lane.
“When dropping off, the Parkinson Drive cul-de-sac provides cars with the ability to loop around and drive straight out,” Loney explained.
“The board worked with municipal partners to ensure that the street and access would be cleared.”
Johnston confirmed parents will drive their children to the dead-end street where they’re dropped off and walk on the foot path to the school.
“Now that’s not really convenient for little kids, obviously, they’re not going to walk that by themselves,” so parents park and walk their child, she said, which defeats the purpose of the kiss and ride program.
Loney noted families with children in kindergarten are asked to continue to drop off their children using the residential streets located at the front of the school.
“Since implementing this change, the school has noticed a decrease in traffic congestion at the front of the school and more parking spots available closer to the school for those families,” Loney stated.
“We are hopeful that families who are eligible for busing will consider resuming that method of transportation, as that will help alleviate some of the congestion as well.”
Ideally, Johnston said she’d like have the parking lot reopened with additional monitoring.
Given the one-way nature of the parking lot, she suggested having more staff outside to guide and enforce traffic coming onto school property.
Loney said the board and school will continue to work with its municipal and police partners to monitor the situation.
In a Feb. 16 email, Loney said the board is continuing to monitor the situation closely and has met with representatives from the Guelph/Eramosa Township bylaw and parking enforcement.
Their staff have been on site enforcing appropriate parking requirements.
The board is also working with both staff from Wellington-Dufferin Student Transportation Services, the local transportation consortium, and the township to conduct a review of the site layout and traffic flow in the future.
