LGISD to Make Changes Because Of After School Dismissal Issues

Dismissal at the elementary campus has become problematic due to an increase in the number of walkers, and changes were made at Monday’s school board meeting.

Since buses come in on Vail St. and the car riders are picked up on Jackson, there are two areas of concern for the walkers.

Originally the walkers were intended to be only neighborhood students who are not eligible for bus transportation. The law states that the bus can only pick up students that are either so far away, two miles or so from campus, or who have to cross a railroad or a major highway. There are a lot of houses that fall in the area that make those students ineligible to ride a bus. The school allows these students to be designated as walkers. What has caused the problem is parents trying to avoid the Jackson Street dropoff/ pick-up.

Most of the students are in school by 7:55 a.m. unless the parents are running late. And with pick-up, they’re out by 4:05 p.m.

The number of walkers who live in the area and doesn’t qualify for bus transportation is 36. However they have over 90 students who are going out with the walker group.

As the students leave the campus, their parents are parked on Jackson, Vail, Milam, or off of several of the roads a block or two from the campus.

The teachers were having to escort the students across the street, and this was a dangerous situation with buses and cars travelling down those streets.

The teachers cannot walk every kid to a car. The purpose of the walkers was for them to walk home. One solution has been to not allow the walkers to leave the campus until the buses have left the parking lot.

Initially most of the walkers were walking to their house or to their grandparents’ house who live in the area between the highways and the railroad tracks (the south side of La Grange.) They were using it the right way. But now what is happening is a lot of people that live outside the area are parking in there and having their kids jump in the car down the road so that they do not have to wait in line on Jackson St.

Dr. Walker said, “It’s somewhat of a safety issue because our staff only goes so far and then the kids are going through the neighborhood to find their parents and their cars and knock on wood, nothing’s happened. We’re bringing this up because one of the solutions would be to say if you live in that no bus zone, you’re eligible to walk.

“But if you live outside that no walk zone, you are going to have to go through the Jackson Street car drop. It will be easy to determine who is eligible and who is not because we have all the addresses.

“Right now, we are monitoring the situation, but if it gets to the point where we feel like we need to make that decision, I want the board to be aware as to why.”

It is a genuine safety concern for the elementary students.