From: Mellon Middle School Administration <noreply@mtlsd.net>
Date: January 3, 2014, 3:29:13 PM EST
To: Mellon Families
Subject: Mellon Announcments
Reply-To: Mellon Middle School Administration <noreply@mtlsd.net>
Hello Mellon Families,We hope that your holiday break was restful and that you are staying warm through this cold spell that we are currently experiencing. We have two weather related announcements for you:
- The Pittsburgh Area Shelters are in desperate need of warm blankets and winter coats. Next week, Student Council is sponsoring an emergency blanket and coat drive. Students, Faculty, and Staff, please go through you cupboards and closets and donate those gently used and loved blankets and coats to those in need. Donations can be given to the homeroom teachers all next week (January 6-10). Please Help!
- On days where we are on a 10am start, the traffic around Mellon is significantly more congested because both Washington and Mellon are starting school at the same time. Today, and on 10am starts in past school years, we have had a significant amount of tardy students because of the traffic congestion. Please plan accordingly and leave yourself a little extra time to get to Mellon on those mornings. On 10am start days, the door to the cafeteria is open at 9:15 so that students who are dropped off early have somewhere to go to get out of the cold. Thank you for your help in trying to get your students here on time when school is delayed.
Sincerely,Mellon Middle School Administration
Mellon opens the doors 45 minutes before 10 AM starts and an hour early on normal days. Elementary schools give kids ten minutes. Why don't the elementary schools allow kids in the school gym or cafeteria and/or classroom at least 20 minutes early to avoid Go Zone mania? Is it because it will require teachers to go on duty early?
17 comments:
That's a great idea that all the schools should follow up on. I believe the high school also discourages students from arriving much before 10 am on days with a 10 am start (don't remember the exact time they list). Besides the fact that 10 am starts produce more traffic congestion than days when the elementary schools start half an hour later than the secondary schools, you also have the fact that the bad weather that caused the delay makes more parents want to drive their kids. Together with the fact that working parents don't necessarily get 10 am starts, greater flexibility is called for. If part of the goal of the delay is to keep kids out of dangerously cold weather (leaving aside that "back in my day, we walked..."), then the policy should take account of the fact that parents who could drive their kids for an 8 am start (keeping them out of the dangerous cold), might be able to drive them for a 9:15 dropoff, and might not be able to drive them for a 10 am start.--Neil Berch
Hi Neil! USC canceled classes today. I guess it is because they have school buses, while our kids are encouraged to walk. I hope schools are closed on Tuesday, when the high is predicted to be 4 degrees. A 10:00 start would be ridiculous.
Remember when we had two hour delays? Starting times were still staggered, making it easier for parents who have kids in more than one school. Also, I seem to remember that kids could be at Foster at 8:20 the earliest, when the first bell was 8:35.
It is physically impossible to get kids out of car seats or booster seats when they are bundled up, and carrying shoes, back packs, lunches, and art projects in thirty seconds or less.
Has anyone calculated how many thirty second slots* are possible in a ten minute period per school? I don't think the teachers are the ones who need the math facilitators!
*Taken from the YSA presentation.
Elaine
The elementary school children are not permitted to arrive early and enter the school without a specific invite from the teacher unless they are in the extended day program, where they are supervised in the program.
In the past, parents have negotiated to be granted permission into the cafeterias with their kindergarten students awaiting afternoon kindergarten in inclement weather. They probably are not allowed to go inside anymore though, now that parents are being fingerprinted to volunteer.
The morning kindergarten children and other students do not go inside at all until the bell rings at 8:30, in all weather conditions. The same restrictions apply with 10:00 am starts. The kids have to wait outside behind the school in lines.
This year, the parents begged for front door access into the building from the Go Zone after many student were being marked as tardy because they were locked out of the school after arriving from the Go Zone. After a PTA sponsored Go Zone meeting about a month into school, with the principal, I believe children were granted permission entry via the front door for 5 minutes (8:30-8:35).
Please explain 10:00 starts and Go Zones. Is drop off 9:50 - 10:00? Since the weather is bad, then wouldn't parents want to drop off their kids as late as possible? Does a 10:00 start mean that the kids are allowed in at 10 and then class begins at 10? Do kids have time to take off their boots? Don't teachers still have to be at school at the regular time? They don't get a delay. Why can't kids go to their classrooms instead of waiting outside in bad weather? I am not understanding this.
Elaine
It look like Trans Associates came up with traffic ordinance ideas for these Go Zones and presented them to the Traffic Board. But if the Commission approved these changes, where are the recommended traffic ordinances?
http://mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3616
Reading through the document, you will see that this is a very simple system.
School will not be closed on Tuesday....they need the extra days in summer to work on the high school project.
At my high school, we were allowed to be at the school a hour early and had full access to the school. Usually we would just go hang out in the cafeteria but sometimes we would go to the library to study or get extra help from teachers.
I hope you are wrong, 8:40 AM. Now I understand why school was not canceled yesterday. So when the news warns viewers to keep pets inside on Tuesday, we can hold our heads high and say that our kids will be waiting outside for the doors to be unlocked at 10 AM.
Elaine
I dropped off my elementary child yesterday at 9:50AM for a 10AM start. She just told me that she was allowed to go in the school upon her arrival and did not have to wait outside in the cold. I believe that they keep the kids in the auditorium until 8:30AM when they can proceed to the classroom.
School is already cancelled in some places across the midwest for Monday. Kids can suffer from frostbite in 5-10 minutes in the predicted cold snap.
The school entry procedure should be consistent across schools, especially for inclement weather, with staggered starting times consistent with the original start time to manage transportation issues and equitable classroom time.
Perhaps parents and residents have been raising concerns about the Go Zones for quite some time and the district is considering a new solution for pick-up and drop-off at the schools.
In a video from the traffic board meeting in September, a minister from a local church described the pick-up conditions outside Mellon and in the library lot as "bedlam" with children "darting" and "dodging" cars. After he spoke about his significant concerns for student and citizen safety, the traffic board indicated that his request for new signage would go to Mr. Feller.
So if you raise a concern to the super, he will send you to Ms. Bowman, who will send you to the traffic board, who will consult with the traffic police and Trans Associates, who might take your request to either Mr. Feller or the Commission. However, this process will only go forward in this manner if you are very lucky. If Trans has data that conflicts with your concerns, or the board is unconvinced, your request for increased attention to your safety concern will be dismissed. Likewise, if you concern is about something that is only addressed once a year, or every couple of years, or decade, you just have to w a i t i t o u t . . .
Has it occurred to anyone that the schools should be providing supervision of students during dismissal? When the kids are in kindergarten, the teachers watch them go their parents at the end of the day, one by one. When the kids reach first grade, they walk out of the building to whomever and however.
In other districts throughout the US, there are "car rider" procedures, that match the students with the car, which prevents students from running to cars, keeps the line orderly and ensures that drivers have the authority to pick up the child. Staff use walky-talkies to match the cars (via tags with numbers) with kids (toting tags as well), etc.
Likewise, there are walking school buses, which inherently provide supervision on the walk home instead of expecting children to navigate intersections and make real time decisions they aren't equipped to make.
There are also "No Cell Phone" ordinances on the school property for drivers so that distractions are minimized. Note: they have an ordinance not just a suggestion.
In Mt Lebanon, the kids are just let out the door and the only supervision that is provided is via a crossing guard at an intersection... and only select intersections. The car riders do not have supervision and hence, the "bedlam" that has been observed and reported. If parents are close to the school, they are told to wait in their cars and if they get out to find their child, they add to the bottleneck and are scolded.
Mt Lebanon should seek to take the best ideas from across the country on providing safety for kids when they are at their highest risk -- around cars.
Ready for your taxes to increase 11:46? Lebo has been a walking community since its inception. Talk about helicopter parenting! Maybe we should just microchip our kids like we do our pets.
If its a walking community, why are the cars lining up outside the schools? I'd prefer kids to walk, too, but since they are not, then what?
By the way, just to be clear Is a helicopter parent one who supervises a 6 year old walking home or finding their parent in a parking situation that has been labeled as "bedlam"?
Schools are closed for Tuesday. What is remarkable is the fact that it was posted on Jan. 1, 2006. Headline Article
Elaine
11:46 Are you saying we need to pay extra for the schools to create an intelligent dismissal process?
Wake up! I have news for you people. Wake up!
Lebo is no longer a walking community like it was. Sure, yes it is if you wish to take a walk, walk your dog on a sidewalk or walk uptown if you live near Washington Road. Not every child can walk to school and dismissal procedures are...dismal.
1:57 pm stupid is as stupid does. News flash! taxes will always go up and times will always change.
This ain't 1950 anymore, dude!
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