In the weeks leading to the opening of Harford County's newest public school, several parents had one concern on their mind: transportation.
Since Red Pump Elementary School's eagerly awaited first day came and went Aug. 31, the transportation and traffic problems surrounding the Bel Air area school are not as paramount as they initially seemed, according to a local parent.
School officials, meanwhile, say they continue to monitor traffic conditions on the roads around the school and have two crossing guards assigned at nearby intersections. The Harford County Sheriff's Office has recommended adding a crossing guard at a third location.
In late July, Melina Donna, of Brentwood Park, spoke to The Aegis about her concerns for her daughter, an incoming second grade student at the new school. Toward the front of the large housing development, Donna's home was one of the many ineligible for bus service, although a bus would be heading into the same neighborhood for the students in houses farther from the school.
Under Harford County Public Schools' bus policy, students living within a mile of their school are designated as walkers.
By July, the school system already had identified two areas in need of crossing guards, but even then, Donna suggested the walk to the crossing guards would be difficult.
She would more than likely drive her daughter, Donna suggested, and that remained true once the school opened its doors last Wednesday.
Donna drives her daughter in the morning, she said Tuesday, and has her husband pick her up in the afternoons.
"The mornings have been OK so far," she said, later adding "so far, so good."
She would still prefer a bus, Donna said, but she also acknowledged the school was trying to make all transportation procedures "smooth." Given that the buses in her neighborhood can't pick up her daughter, Donna said the school was doing "the best they can" in the situation and the overall transportation process has been going "as well as it can be expected."
She also said she heard the afternoon pick-up was "pretty busy." Traffic is being monitored, Teri Kranefeld, the school system's Manager of Communications, wrote in an e-mail.
Prior to the opening of the school, Kranefeld wrote Tuesday, the Harford County Sheriff's Office had conducted traffic studies and, although traffic may have "fluctuated" with the school's opening, they were more concerned with traffic during arrival and dismissal times.
The school system will continue to monitor traffic through correspondence with the crossing guards on location, Kranefeld added, and encouraged parents and students to only cross where there is a crossing guard or sheriff's deputy.
In this school's case, there are two designated crossing guards. One is assigned to the intersection of Red Pump Road and Yankee Doodle Drive – a roundabout that includes the school's main access road. The other guard is at Red Pump and Vale roads, according to Monica Worrell, public information officer for the Harford County Sheriff's Office.
Already, the sheriff's office has identified another location in need of added personnel.
"There is a section that kids are crossing that doesn't have a crosswalk," Worrell said.
Where Macroom Court meets Vale Road, she said, students would have to walk away from Red Pump Elementary in order to reach the closest crosswalk and instead, have resorted to crossing the street where the curb opens into the road.
For now, the sheriff's office has assigned a school resource officer to maintain that post until a third crossing guard can start regularly at the school within the next two weeks.
With those short term and long term plans in place, Worrell said, they hadn't identified any other issues, but are also "working with public works for potential other traffic control measures."
Drivers passing the school may have also noticed a school system truck blocking the "back" entrance to the campus off of Vale Road, specifically during arrival and dismissal times. Although the truck will eventually leave, its intent will remain.
The back entrance was designed for emergencies only, Kranefeld wrote, and not public traffic, especially because the road is narrow and on a hill with poor visibility.
"That location was not meant to be utilized as an entrance to or exit from the school grounds," she added.
A gate has been designed for the access road to block it more permanently, but the school system is awaiting a part needed for its installation. Until the gate is installed, hopefully by Friday, Kranefeld wrote, the truck will be deployed.