Eunice Thomas Elementary Adopts New Pick-Up Procedure
In an effort to increase student safety, Eunice Thomas Elementary will institute a new pick-up procedure beginning on Wednesday, March 29 for those students that are picked-up at the end of the school day.
Parents will no longer enter the building to pick up their students in the cafeteria. They will be asked to pull into one of four different pick-up zones in the circle drive outside of the Primary cafeteria door. Once a vehicle is stopped, staff will call for students to exit the building to load into their vehicle.
“Our number one priority at Eunice Thomas Elementary is student safety,” stated Mrs. Catherine Weaver, principal at Cassville Primary. “We believe our new pick-up method will not only provide a safe option for our students and staff, it will also be more convenient for parents. Parents will no longer be required to get in and out of their vehicles like we have done in the past. The new method will also drastically reduce the foot-traffic on crowded streets and intersections during such a busy time of day.”
Vehicles will form a single file line entering the circle drive that will run parallel to the front of the school building and down Kid Cat Drive (or 14th Street). After vehicles have lined-up along 14th Street, parents are encouraged to curve the line to run along Park Street.
Four vehicles at a time will be allowed to enter the loading zone and park in a designated loading space. Once all students are in their vehicles safely, all four vehicles will exit. Cars will not be permitted to exit until all four cars are loaded and ready to depart. All four cars will depart at the same time.
“Similar pick-up methods have worked well at our Intermediate School as well as during summer school,” said Weaver. “We believe this is the best and safest option for our students and staff. We know there will be a transitional period as we all adjust, but we are optimistic given a little time, it will be a better system for all of us.”
All parents that pick-up their child will be provided with a permit that must be displayed in the right hand front dashboard of their vehicle. The permit will serve as proof of permission for the driver to pick up that specific student. Individuals needing to pick up students who do not possess the pick up permit will need to park in the parking lot and obtain a temporary permit from primary office staff.
If parents are currently picking up an Intermediate student with your Primary student, parents should wait to get into line until 3:15 as Intermediate students arrive later to the Primary building.
If parents arrive before their Intermediate student arrives, the parent will be asked to circle around and re-enter the line again so that traffic flow may continue.
“We know this will take some getting-used to for all of us,” said Weaver. “We encourage our parents and community members to be patient with us as we make this transition. If we are all considerate and courteous of each other, this process will be much smoother for everyone.”