About a third of Bel Air Elementary School's students either walk or ride bicycles to school, and some of their parents think that's too many and that they have to traverse too many dangerous roads and intersections.
"Safety is the number one concern for all of our kids, and I just feel like we have too many walkers," Jessica Kirk, who has two sons who attend Bel Air Elementary, said during a recent Board of Education meeting.
Kirk said she either walks her sons to school or drives them, and she said the traffic congestion at the intersection of Lee Way and North Hickory Avenue in the morning "is just insane."
Kirk said she grew up in Bel Air, and she walked to school when the town's population was much smaller.
"Now, I don't think it's equipped to handle this many walkers," Kirk, 40, said. "The congestion is just insane."
School administrators said they have implemented multiple systems during the past year and coordinated with Harford County Public Schools, Town of Bel Air and Bel Air Police Department officials to ensure student safety.
"We've worked really well with the school system and with the town and the police department to alleviate some of the concerns," Principal Dyann Mack said Wednesday.
Despite the efforts, which were ramped up during the 2013-2014 school year as Bel Air Elementary was moved to a fourth-tier busing schedule and lost several buses as school system leaders worked to reconcile their budget for fiscal 2014, some parents remain concerned about the safety of walkers.
The number of walkers also grew to 150 out of about 500 students; a school system spokesperson has previously said that 20 children walked to and from Bel Air Elementary during the 2012-13 school year.
Elementary students who live up to a mile from their school must have their own transportation, according to the HCPS web page on transportation policy.
Kirk said there have been days when a crossing guard has not shown up, and parents have helped children deal with morning commuter traffic and get across the street.
"I have seen a couple of kids almost get hit by a car, because they cross Lee Way and they're not at an intersection, and cars go flying down Lee Way because they think it's the next Bel Air Bypass," Kirk told board members.
Bel Air police officers help children cross at Lee and Hickory, where most walkers come through, and an officer also escorts a smaller group of children who come to school from the north side of town and cross at East Gordon and Franklin streets, Mack said.
"The police department has been more than supportive," the principal said.
The school day at Bel Air Elementary begins at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., in accordance with the fourth-tier busing schedule. Mack, along with Assistant Principal Cristen Culver, described an intensive dismissal procedure that involves coordinating school buses, parents who park on East Gordon to pick up their children and the walkers and bike riders.
About 10 school staff members take part in the dismissal process, which Mack noted lasts a maximum of 12 minutes.
She said school administrators regularly communicate with the school system or the town to deal with any issues that come up during arrival and dismissal.
As an example, Mack said the HCPS central office provided extra snow and ice removal resources, such as salt, to help clear a stubborn patch of ice on the sidewalk at Lee and Hickory – which is off school property – that was impeding the walkers in recent weeks.
Kirk brought up the issue of snow removal in her remarks to the board.
"It's not about whose problem it is," Mack said. "It's about getting the kids here."
Fourth-grader James Dean left school shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, and he walked with a group of his classmates along Lee Street toward the crosswalk at Hickory, where a town police officer was available to help them cross.
The officer stopped the two-way traffic, and drivers waited as students and parents crossed.
James and his friends said they feel safe crossing Hickory in the morning and afternoon, but they noted traffic can get heavy during their morning travels.
"If it's at 9 [a.m.], there's going to be a lot of cars here," James said.
Parent Karisa Sikora, who was walking her 6-year-old daughter Zoe home, echoed Kirk's concerns about traffic congestion at Lee and Hickory, and she said she has seen drivers not slowing down even when a police officer is in the intersection.
"We feel really safe, but I don't feel like a lot of drivers respect the crossing guards and the officers," she said.
Sikora said the HAR-CO Credit Union branch at Hickory and Lee, which is on the right-hand corner when leaving school and crossing Hickory to the east, makes it difficult to see traffic coming from the right.
She said a traffic circle could help control the flow of cars.
"You have to be really aware," Sikora said of crossing Hickory.
Sikora praised the crossing guards and police officers who help children cross each day.
"I think that they work really hard to take care of the kids coming out of Bel Air Elementary," she said.
Sikora and her family live near Lee Way, and they walk to as many places as possible around town, especially when local restaurants and the Bel Air library are so close.
"We're super-excited to be walkers," she said.
Mack acknowledged parents' frustrations with the transportation changes of the past year, but she noted many have been supportive, even bringing hot chocolate and cookies to staffers working dismissal in the recent sub-freezing weather.
"We know that the economics are hitting hard, but I think we're all working really well to support each other," the principal said.