Bottleneck at South Elementary concerns Jackson city, school officials

Parents at South Elementary School in Jackson have unwritten rules to alleviate traffic congestion while picking up and dropping off their children, said Susan Englehart.

"A lot of people have caught on and allow cars to pull out ahead of them," Englehart said as she waited in front of the school Wednesday afternoon.

School traffic gets backed up for about 15 minutes before and after school, she said. The heavy cross-traffic on Highway 25 makes it difficult for parents to pull out of the school driveway, creating more congestion in the parking lot. The bottleneck has provoked student safety concerns for city and school officials.

Englehart said that while the implied system helps, the situation can be frustrating.

"Everybody takes their time," Engelhart said. "Everybody's pretty nice about it, most of the time."

Some parents come early or late to avoid the heaviest traffic, said Jill Chrusciel as she waited to pick up her daughter. Her car was near the end of a line winding around the school parking lot.

"It's all about that peak time. You've got to figure out what that time is," she said just after dismissal time, 3:10 p.m. As the line of cars started to move, she said she would like to see a traffic light at the school entrance.

"I won't hold up the line," she said, shifting her car into gear. "That's another rule."

At the beginning of the school year there are more traffic issues because parents are getting used to school routines, said assistant principal Shauna Criddle. The overall problem has grown along with the school's enrollment, she said.

Criddle said parents have parked along the road to walk the children up to the school and avoid waiting in the line of cars. There have also been several car accidents, she said.

"It's just crowded," Criddle said. "And people get frustrated because they have to wait and wait and wait just to drop their kids off."

State, city and school officials agree there is a problem, and they have been meeting for several months to discuss it. The solution has not been so obvious.

"We've done about everything we can within the confines of the site," said superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson. The bus schedule has been staggered, he said, so they arrive later to miss the traffic. Teachers also help move the traffic along, he said.

"We get parents calling and complaining, and I understand why," he said.

City officials had hoped to use stimulus money designated for road projects to put in a traffic signal and turn lane but did not receive the funding.

Jackson Mayor Barbara Lohr said she is willing to study the problem more to find a different solution.

"We have looked at it, and that was our best solution, but I'm not a traffic engineer," she said.

Mark Shelton, District 10 engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said he has monitored the traffic patterns. With inclines and curves near the entrance, a traffic signal would create more accidents and traffic backup, he said.

"I don't believe it's simply a MoDOT problem that a signal on Highway 25 will fix," he said.

He said the solution will be a combination of city, state and school resources, starting with an evaluation of the capacity and setup of the parking lot.

"I think that all of us need to continue to work together to analyze and work out what the best solution for the traffic congestion is," he said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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