What’s up with no pick-up?

New Ulm High School has recently started to enforce a new pick-up and drop-off policy. The horseshoe in the front of the school was originally made to be a pick-up and drop-off lane. However, the school SRO Sara Pruett started to stand at the opening of the horseshoe and redirect traffic away from the now drop-off only area. Many students witnessed the situation and wondered why they were changing the dynamic of the pick-up and drop-off area.

Officer Pruett said that “it was always intended to be a drop-off only” and that the pick-up was for our handicapped students. When parents started to pick their kids up in this area the school let it slide because it was not causing any issues. However, recent issues arose when parents and grandparents started to park in the horseshoe and wait for their kids to come out. This may not have been a problem if students would come out of the building within a minute, but cars were starting to show up 30 minutes before school even got out.

This was causing a large backup in traffic and the short buses were unable to get up to the school to pick up our handicapped kids. Officer Pruett said that “it took [her] 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot, in order to get down to a call at Jefferson Elementary.” Students are allowed to be picked up in the horseshoe during the day, such as if they were going home sick; the area is only restricted to drop-off only from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The new policy ensures that all emergency vehicles have access to and from the school and the short buses can easily access school to safely pick-up our handicapped students

The new policy now has parents pick up their kids on highland or in the turn-around by the tennis courts. The new dynamic is seeming to be an effective solution to the former pick-up problem. The transition to this new policy has not been easy, but with time has grown into an effective new system of pick-up and drop-off for our students and parents.