Those that drop of children at the Delta High School or Junior High will experience a different interaction with school buses this year. Superintendent Shaun Streyle said that one of the issues in the parking lot off of Nistler Road has been the interaction between school buses, other vehicles, and students walking into the school.
“We had students walking between buses to enter the school building,” Streyle said, “it was not safe.”
This summer the Delta Career Advance Center Heavy Equipment Academy helped implement a solution to the problem.
The academy constructed a gravel drive/parking area between the existing parking lot and the ball field. The drive and parking area will be used by school buses arriving at the school and for loading and unloading students.
Upon entering the school from Nistler Road buses will proceed to the right past the island that marks the end of the parking spaces and then turn left across the parking lot onto the new drive – the first four spaces in the lot will be blocked off.
The buses will then proceed down the new drive to the school building near the entrance to the senior lounge where students will be dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. Students will then be able to proceed to and from the school along the sidewalk as before.
The advantage to this plan Streyle said was that parents can now drop of students along the sidewalk adjacent to the school building and students will not have to walk in between buses to get to the building.
After loading/unloading, buses will proceed beside the secondary school building to North Clearwater Road and depart from there.
One other advantage will be that buses leaving the school complex and going to the elementary school or returning to the bus barn will not have to make a left turn out of the parking lot onto Nistler Road.
Those driving personal vehicles need to be aware that the new area is for buses only said Steryle.
