Parking Lot Etiquette and Safety

Parking Lot Safety and Getting Into Routines

It is that time of year again where families ready their children for the transition from summer into a new school year.  For many families that means working out carpools, making sure your child knows his/her bus number, or simply helping your child get into a more regular schedule of not staying up so late.  Whatever your back to school routine is or will be, we are looking forward to your child’s arrival.

We know that establishing those morning routines after the lazy days of summer can be difficult especially when it comes to helping your young teen get up and be on time for school.  Running late isn’t fun for anyone, so we ask you to consider the following as we all transition back to the new school year.

• Help your teen prior to the first day of school have his/her backpack ready to go and by the door with ruled line paper and some writing tools.

• Have your teen decide on that perfect outfit and breakfast the night before so in the morning, your teen isn’t tripped up with making too many decisions that take the focus off of leaving for school or the bus on time.

• If your teen takes the bus, encourage him/her to ride it to school even on the first day.  Our parking lot is busy and getting back to bus routines will help alleviate unnecessary traffic woes.

• If you drive your teen to school, use only the front parking lot for drop-off because the busses in the bus bay aren’t expecting students to be getting out of cars and the busses have the right of way.

Please know we have more students attending OGMS than ever before and so it is key to leave plenty of time for the pick-up and drop-off line,  Please remember to bring your patience while wearing your smile as your child unloads in the front parking lot.

Parking Lot Etiquette:   Please be patient because safety for our students is our first priority.

A.M.      In the morning, administration, staff and parent volunteers will support the flow of traffic.  Please pay attention to their directions. 

• As you enter the school, remain in the right-hand lane for drop off. 
•  Follow the circle drive around and drop off along the sidewalk curb of the main office past the crosswalk.  Keep pulling all the way up the yellow line when directed to move forward.
• Students must exit on the right and will enter through the SW gate near the MPR.
• Students can exit when your car is anywhere on the yellow line, but if you don't have a car in front of you, keep moving forward till you get to the front of the line to allow more students behind your car to exit.

If you are parking, move to the left lane as you enter and follow the traffic around to either the first entrance or the second. Find a non-handicapped parking space and let your child out.  Remind your child to carefully walk to the crosswalk.  Pull out watching for students around you.   There is only one entrance into the parking lot. 

 Chains will remain up across all other access points to parking. 

PLEASE DON’T MISS THE CHAINED FENCES!  If you park, it is recommended that you escort your child to the crosswalk.

P.M.     In the afternoon, please pay attention again to administration, staff, and parent volunteers helping to get your student to you safely.

• Remain in the right lane and pull up along the yellow line till you get to the designated cones that will signal where cars should begin to cue up for students if you arrive first.
• If cars are lined up to the Orange Grove exit, do not double park, but move into the left lane and park in the first or second parking rows.
• Students will exit from the SW gate that they entered in the morning and be moved in the direction of the sidewalk.
• After your student has gotten into your car on the passenger side, pull out from your spot carefully and move into the left lane to exit.
• As you exit in the morning and the afternoon, it would be ideal to turn right/westbound for your safety as well as the safety of your passengers, but there is no way for us to control this, so please be aware of other surrounding cars as you exit. 

With everyone helping to follow the rules we are able to exit students in 10-15 minutes.  We know the above options are not ideal, but with your help, a sense of humor, and of course the help of administration, staff and our parent volunteers, we will all do our best to smile through the busy parking lot duty knowing that it is only a moment in time, and that everyone wants to do their best to support students exiting or entering their school safely.

Thank you,

Susan Rosenthal

P.S.  Please remember to not drop your child off earlier than 7:00 in the morning due to no supervision on campus prior to this time.  If you are late picking your child up and it is after 2:45, please park your car and come to the front office.  Your child will be in the library participating in study hall.  Again, we have no supervision and our Community School’s Staff will now be watching your child and you can be charged for this service.