Revised Plan for the New Parking Lot

CRS Families and School Community!

This blog post is intended to communicate important changes to our plan for our new parking lot at the replacement school. More details can be found below, but the major change is that we are going to completely close the parking lot to parents for the time being.

I know that it was only a couple of weeks ago that I shared our original plan for the parking lot and I really apologize for potentially causing confusion by revising those plans now. As you can imagine, this move has created a seemingly endless list of procedures and routines that need to be envisioned and adjusted. Despite our best efforts to plan things carefully and to communicate in a clear manner, I am finding that each day brings new realizations and new challenges that change our previous thinking about the best approaches to take on all kinds of things.

For the parking lot plans, the installation of the fence around the old school and the old parking lot will severely limit parents’ ability to meet with their students in the school yard after school, forcing everyone to the front of the building. Additionally, the sidewalk on the North-East side of the parking lot will not be completed until after the demolition of the old building has been finished. Compounding the matter, the recent warm weather has revealed that our new school is surrounded by muddy black topsoil that we have had to fence off in order to keep students clean and to protect the grass that will eventually be seeded in those areas. Needless to say, we will be very limited for spaces where students can muster during drop off and pick up times.

Consequently, we are going to temporarily use the bus lane as a congregating area for students and the parent lane will temporarily become the bus lane, both before and after school. All parents will need to park on 43rd Avenue or the adjacent cul de sacs for drop-offs and pick-ups. Once the grass is in place and/or when the demolition of the old building is completed, we will look forward to opening up the parking lot as per our original plan.

NEW Visual Map for Afternoon Dismissals

Click the three dots and select "Enter Full Screen" to view a larger version of this map.

I am sure that this won’t be the last time we need to rethink something at our new school building. But thank you for bearing with us as we sort out how to safely and efficiently welcome our students each morning and dismiss them all in the afternoons!  We will be monitoring how this plan unfolds and we will continue to communicate any adjustments that may help the process. As always, we welcome your feedback as we navigate this together!

Finally, I will also use this opportunity to re-communicate some important upcoming dates:

• ★April 4: Students will start their day at the old school building for an assembly and then carry their student supplies over to the new building
• April 5: Kindergarten (Tues/Thurs) students will start at the old building; all other students will begin their day at the new building
• ★April 13 (5:00 - 5:45 pm): Parents are invited to visit the school for brief tours and then hopefully stay for our Parent Council Meeting at 6:00pm!
• ★April 20 and 21: Parent-Teacher Interviews - Scheduled times will be shared in advance; families will have the option to attend in-person or via phone/video

Enjoy the last few days of Spring Break and see you very soon on April 4th!

Yours in Education,

Reid Lansing