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Buses are now entering and exiting the school grounds at the access shown at the bottom of the map. From there, they travel along the south side of the building and pick-up and drop-off in the area on the west side of the building where you can see a oval pointed on the pavement.
Wheatland Center School officials are satisfied with the most recent scheme of organizing cars and buses for student drop-off and pick-up.
The current plan, with buses located in the back or west side of the school and parents picking up and dropping off along the front or east side of the school, has been in place for about two weeks.
Dropping off and picking up students has been a contentious issue at the school this year as school officials have tried to find a safer way for student transportation. In years past, buses used to drop off students in double file along the east side of the school and cars dropped off in the north parking lot. This year, buses had been dropping off students in the bus parking lot southeast of the school and cars were dropping off along the east side of the school. The change was made to separate car and bus traffic. However, concerns have been raised from the public about the safety of students crossing the parking lot from the bus parking area while cars drive nearby. The buses in the back was the most recent change.
This week, administrators and some board members said they were satisfied with the latest arrangement so far.
“I think at the present time, let it keep going,” said interim district administrator Conrad Chaffee.
“It’s really smooth,” said board member Kandi Horton.
Despite the progress, the district is still going to look into a couple of refinements — parking lot stop signs and speed bumps in the area where cars drop-off and pick-up.
The board is also gathering data for a possible switch from seven bus routes to six.
