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By Dave Brooks / REGISTER-PAJARONIAN
Parents of middle school students might have to leave a little earlier if they
want to get their children to class on time.
Student populations at three of the four middle schools in the Pajaro
Valley Unified School District jumped significantly this year and parking
lots are teeming with parents looking to either drop off or pick-up their
preteens.
Rose Alaniz has thought of one way to beat the rush: arrive early,
really early.
Alaniz's granddaughter attends Lakeview Middle School. In order to avoid
traffic, Alaniz gets to school an hour-and-a-half before school lets out.
"It's the only way I can get a good spot," she said.
This school year is the first that area middle schools have returned to
a traditional calendar system after using a year-round model for nearly a
decade. As a result, campus parking lots are feeling the push.
With the year-round system, schools avoid overcrowding by always having
a fraction of the students off campus. The district scrapped the system
earlier this year because it became increasingly difficult to manage.
After a year of planning, students now are all on campus at the same time.
Lakeview Principal Casey O'Brien said his school has about 250 more
students on campus at any one time because of the switch.
O'Brien said that he had more cars coming in and out of the school but he
was working with parents -- even helping out by directing traffic -- to keep the
school's parking lot from congesting.
There's been "a little bit of an increase in cars," O'Brien said, but added that
as the school year progresses - right now students are only in the second
week -- he expects things to improve.
Many parents did their best to remain patient Monday while waiting for their
children to find their cars. One driver said the problem is that parents refuse
to budge from wherever they've stopped - whether in a parking spot or in the
middle of a lane - until their children arrive to their car. While time does go
by much slower when sitting in a hot car, the school parking lot was near
empty 15 minutes after the bell rang.
Alice Moldenhauer thought the situation was improving, but still decided to
show up 45 minutes early to avoid getting stuck in traffic. Once she waited
until school got out to pickup her granddaughter and got trapped in gridlock.
"I was stuck out on the highway (152)," she said
O'Brien said the increase in student population is mostly felt at lunchtime
when students crowd into the cafeteria. He said the lines get so long that
some students only have a few minutes to eat.
And Lakeview isn't alone when it comes to traffic problems. According to an
office worker at Rolling Hills Middle School, the school's student population
has jumped from between 400-500 to about 960. E.A. Hall also has seen its
student body increase.
Many parents were worried that traffic jams would worsen as a result of the
bus charge implementation. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Despite
the district's new policy to charge for bus rides, ridership actually has
increased from last year, according to newly appointed PVUSD Public
Information Officer Nancy Bilicinch.
"Bus attendance compared to last year is slightly up in the South and
Central zones and somewhat down in the North Zone," Bilicinch said.
"4,000 students have acquired bus passes."
With more students on the bus and school administrators busily working
to get parents out of parking lots, many are hoping that traffic jams caused
by overcrowding will slowly dissipate.
"We need to make sure parents are aware," O'Brien said.
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