News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Van Buren Board of Education considered a change to the morning drop-off process after receiving complaints from parents about traffic.
Schools open at 7:30am but traffic backs up off school property well before the doors open. Director of Schools Jared Copeland said he was not in favor of a change to the process.
“I would like to not change that piece if things were to change at all,” Copeland said. “Because I don’t want to go back to two to three hundred kids in a gym on a rotation of people. That creates headaches and problems. I feel like we created a good thing and I don’t want to break that in the process of fixing something else.”
The board did not vote on any proposed idea to change the drop-off process. Board Member Barry Austin said the congestion would happen no matter what time the schools opened as parents are looking to drop their kids off as early as possible.
“The main thing is a lot of these parents look at it as a daycare,” Austin said. “They have somewhere to be at 7:45 AM or 8:00 AM and they want to get rid of the kid at 7:15 AM.”
An idea proposed that Spencer Elementary School open a second lane for drop off instead of moving the drop off to an earlier time. Spencer Elementary School Principal Amanda Binkley said the only time it took a long time to move the drop-off line was the first day of school.
“Every day since the first day we have not had a line on Sparta Street after 7:38 AM,” Binkley said. “That is fast.”
Copeland said the second lane is also closed due to safety reasons.
Teachers are not being paid for the additional 15 minutes they are required to be at school for drop-off. Binkley said the teachers have expressed in favor of keeping the current process.
“They said to the principals do not ever go back,” Binkley said. “We will continue the extra hour and a half of our time every week because this is what’s best for the kids.”
Copeland said the school system should compensate the teachers for that time.
Binkley said the benefit of the current process is the kids are being fed with a good meal and are being checked on by people they know before class starts.
In other business, The board approved taking bids for HVAC Units for the Spencer Elementary School gym. The board approved a bid of $131,907 to replace the floor of the Spencer Elementary School gym.
