Kristen Connor

Established at the beginning of the school year, Van Buren High School and Middle School changed the times of the first and last bells of the day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., to 7:50 a.m. to 2:51 p.m. This was done to help the traffic issue in the parking lot after school. Questions have been raised on whether this new schedule will continue to be implemented, or if it has even helped to resolve the issue.

Mr. Brand, who is in favor of the new schedule, said, “Yes, the time change will be staying. As of right now, no one has complained about it.”

The issue with the parking lot is that it gets overcrowded due to the influx of Elementary parents coming early to pick up their kids, since the elementary kids used to be let out before the high school. With the parents coming early, they would drive into the parking lot and park their cars in non-parking spots behind parked students so that they couldn’t leave.

At times, students couldn’t get out of the parking lot for at least 15 minutes.

So has the time change helped in the parking lot? Brand seems to think so. “I think it’s worked pretty well. The wait isn’t so long anymore.”

Along with the high school changing their times, the elementary did as well. They used to start at 8 a.m. along with the high school, and get out at 2:50 p.m.. Now they get out at 3 p.m. so that parents are forced to come later to pick up their kids.

“For some reason, some the elementary kids’ parents seem to come even earlier to pick up their kids, which isn’t much help to the problem,” Brand stated.

Not only was there a traffic problem after school, but before school as well.

Abbey Phillips, junior, doesn’t think the time change has fixed the parking lot problem. “I’m still late to school in the morning.”

The line to get into the school can get pretty long in the morning due to the traffic light timing, as well as parents dropping off the kids and stopping in the middle of the lanes.

On the other hand, junior Justin Phillips thinks the time change has helped tremendously with the traffic problem. “All of the high school kids are basically already in school by the time the elementary kids get dropped off. The high school kids are already parked and not trying to get into parking lot at the same time.”

Justin also stated that he doesn’t have much trouble leaving the school in the afternoon.

To fix the problem, Abbey suggests, “Parents should make their kids grow up like an ‘ordinary’ child and ride the bus.”

Was the time change enough to fix the problem? Some think it has, while others feel that the issue still exists. What we do know is that the time change will continue into the 2014-15 school year.