Parking woes addressed
Published on October 16th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - An elementary school principal wears many different hats during their career, and Kathleen Windisch donned the tour guide cap at last week’s School Committee meeting.
Windisch kicked off Thurs-day’s meeting with a cable televised tour of the new Central School.
From the Welcome Center inside the front doors, where student art is displayed, through offices, classrooms and labs, Windisch showed off the state-of-the-art facility with a railroad station theme, that first opened to students nearly a year ago.
A major advantage to the school over the previous building is the additional space that allows the whole school community, including students’ families, to share in various programs.
The Central School hosted the School Committee meeting last week, and was the center of attention as the committee discussed the outside of the building.
Traffic was the topic and, according to the School Committee, it should begin to flow easier at the site starting next week. The improvement is thanks to the hard work and brainstorming on the part of members of the school administration, School Committee and parents.
While the new Central School is indeed a beautiful facility, it does possess one major drawback that has threatened the safe drop off and pick up of students each day.
As the Stoneham School Committee discussed last month, the footprint of that school is not large enough to accommodate parent parking during the morning and afternoon rushes. A system of live parking had been developed for virtually all parents who enter the site each day at the start of school and again at dismissal, but within weeks of school opening the system began breaking down and the safety of students was at risk.
In addition to the actual footprint, School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly told the School Committee on Thursday that traffic off the site was also a factor in a congested school site, especially in the afternoon.
Currently, 385 students attend the new Central School, 750 attend the adjacent Middle School, and 600 students make up the student bodies of the Robin Hood and Colonial Park Schools temporarily housed at the old Central School across the way.
"You can imagine how difficult it is here in the afternoon," Connelly said.
On Thursday, he presented the School Committee with a revised plan for traffic at drop off and pick up times.
The Central School has over 600 linear feet of parent pick up and drop off space. The original plan was to have parents pull up for drop off or pick up, and then keep moving. Difficulties arise, however, when that flow does not keep moving and instead parents are parking and staying on site.
Connelly discovered, in his meeting with parents and school staff, that a major factor to this congestion is the differences in dismissal time. Preschool is dismissed 15 minutes later than the rest of Central School, and the Middle School is out 30 minutes later. Parents with children in both Central School and preschool or Middle School must park and wait on site for a longer time interval than originally thought necessary for any Central School parent.
Another reason for the congestion, he learned, was that kindergarten and first grade teachers have asked Central School parents to walk to the entrance to pick up their children. Obviously, these cars must park first.
Changes to the existing plan include moving Central School staff parking to the lot closest to the Pomeworth Street entrance. The lot is currently open to parents but almost inaccessible once parents pass it en route to the designated pick up area. This would open up about 23 parking spaces in front of the school playground for parents in need of the extended parking.
In addition, School Committee member Cheryl Walsh came up with the idea to look into leasing parking spaces for Middle School staff from the adjacent office building at 105 Central Street. Connelly and School Committee Chairman Dan Moynihan have done that and, thanks to the generosity of building owner Jeff Cataldo, about 20 spaces will be leased to Middle School teachers, thereby freeing up even more parking spaces in front of Central School.
Connelly stated that the small amount of money the school department will pay to Cataldo will pay to landscape the strip between his property and the Middle School. This week, two walkways are scheduled to be installed on the divider for teachers to access the Middle School from their cars.
"This will really improve the whole footprint of Central School," Connelly said.
The new parking arrangement is expected to be in place next week, but Connelly cautioned that the new spaces in front of the building must be used as extended parking only for those situations described above.
"This cannot be used for live parking," he stated.
Avoiding the dangerous situation of students crossing the drive in front of the school building to get to their parents must be avoided, Connelly added.
"The goal is to through this school year,” said Casey.
Once the Robin Hood and Colonial Park School construction projects are completed, those students will move out of the old Central School, relieving some of the traffic and congestion problems on Pomeworth Street.
Moynihan praised Walsh for her ideas and Cataldo for his generosity.
"Without his assistance ... we would not be able to provide a plan as good as this,” said Moynihan. “It seems to be a reasonable alternative to what we have now."
In other news, the Stoneham High School Band and the Stoneham High School Chorale have been chosen once again to perform in Disney World.
For the second year in a row, both the band and the chorale have been recognized for their outstanding performances. Last year, the trip never came to fruition, however, since Connelly cancelled all trips due to the ensuing feeling of unrest regarding travel after September 11.
Director of Music Robert Lague asked the School Committee for its approval as is required for any overnight school trips.
The performance would be held at Disney’s Epcot Center.
"To me, there is no better educational center than Epcot Center,” said Lague. “To perform there in front of an international audience is just a spectacular opportunity for the kids.”
The trip will cost the students each about $750 and Lague has provided them with various fundraising opportunities.
"I think Bob has planned it very well. He has addressed all my concerns," Connelly said.
The School Committee granted its unanimous approval.
Committee member Marc Grimaldi reported on his and Walsh’s recent visit to a Robin Hood School PTO meeting, stating that he was impressed with how well run and attended it was.
"I learned a lot,” said Grimaldi. “This whole effort to try to enhance communication and get out there and actually listen to the parents and PTO ... is really working."
The next School Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 22 at the old Central School where Robin Hood and Colonial Park schools will serve as hosts.
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