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Tuesday, September 6, 2005
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2,100 kids + cars = total CHAOS Forestview students urged to ride the bus Staff Writer Imagine the traffic congestion if every resident of Nisswa or Pequot Lakes was transported or drove to the same location at the same time each day.
This is why Brainerd School District officials have all but begged parents of Forestview Middle School students to put their children on a school bus, rather than drive them to the Baxter school, on Tuesday.
Forestview will open Tuesday for the first time to the district's fifth- through eighth-grade students. When Forestview opened in January to the 1,400 students from Washington Middle School and Mississippi Horizons, parents waited in long lines backed up along both directions of Crow Wing County Road 48 on the first day of classes.
On Tuesday, 2,100 students will start school there and district officials have been asking parents to take advantage of the district's mass transportation system or to carpool, rather than drive their child to school.
Superintendent Jerry Walseth said the peak traffic flow issues at Forestview aren't indicative of a flaw in the design of the school. Rather, the problem lies in the overall transportation system in Brainerd/Baxter. While the district has made internal changes to help with traffic patterns on school property, Walseth said additional access points to Highway 210 are needed to help streamline traffic problems at the school at these peak times.
"It isn't just a school issue, it's our driving habits and our overall traffic design," said Walseth. "Until that changes, we're going to have to adjust as we have adjusted at all other (school building) sites. All of our folks who go to work see what it's like to feed into a system simultaneously. Forestview is nice for pickups and drop-offs, but the access for parents isn't always what we want."
Kala Henkensiefken, district transportation coordinator, said she has found more parents are registering their children for the bus so they don't have to fight the morning traffic Tuesday at Forestview. District-wide, an estimated 5,932 students are registered to ride the bus to school. At Forestview, about 600 students in fifth and sixth grades will be bused to their north entrance and about 600 seventh- and eighth-grade students will be bused to their south entrance.
There may be a few exceptions, but the vast majority of Forestview students will get off the bus along with their classmates at their end of the building, said Henkensiefken.
Brainerd High School and the BHS South Campus may be another school site with traffic concerns, starting Wednesday. On Tuesday sophomores will be the only students in school at BHS, along with the ninth-grade students at the south campus. But Wednesday will be the first day in which school officials will experience a busy school day with all high school students, many of whom may drive themselves to school. About 487 BHS South Campus students are registered to ride the bus while 900 BHS students are registered to ride the bus.
Henkensiefken said both parents and students are starting to get used to having bus cards and understanding how the shuttle sites are operated so everything should run smoothly this week. She said buses may run behind the first few days simply because bus drivers are checking each child's bus card to make sure the child is on the right bus.
"We keep smiling and try to think positive," said Henkensiefken. "We're anticipating it should be a pretty good year for us from a busing standpoint."
Henkensiefken said one parent recently told her she was registering her child for the bus this year because of high gas prices, another reason why parents may consider using the buses.
Walseth reminded motorists to be attentive on the roads and watch for schoolchildren and buses Tuesday. Forestview has its own trail system and several students will ride their bikes to school. He asked that parents be prepared to be patient if they plan to drop their child off at Forestview, allowing for extra time.
Parents who drop their children off at Forestview also are reminded to drive all the way around the drop-off circle, rather than stopping in the middle to drop a child off at the door. It allows other parents in vehicles behind you to drop their children off at the same time, too, and helps maintain a constant traffic flow.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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