Salinas elementary schools tackle traffic and safety concerns

A flood of complaints about parking and traffic at local schools has prompted us to go get answers. After we told you about the concerns of neighbors near Harden Middle School this week in Salinas, you sounded off about the pick-up and drop-off difficulties at other schools as well.

Lincoln is located smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood — and really “location” is the problem with most of the schools in Salinas.

Early in the morning and in the afternoon traffic backs up pretty bad.

On Thursday, NewsChannel 5 talked with the school district assistant superintendent who admitted he knows there’s an issue but not a lot anyone can do it about it…

“It’s a hassle,” said Stan Foss, a grandparent with grand kids at Lincoln Elementary.

“Everybody is fighting for a space,” Foss said.

Foss picks up his granddaughter regularly at Lincoln Elementary, where security is a priority.

“The only way I can get in all the time is through the entrance right over there because everything is locked up so it’s the time constraints,” Foss said.

With parents and grandparents physically going to get their kids, things are a little different than a middle school where kids cross the street on there own. But traffic is always an issue at pick up and drop off.

“It’s a problem at virtually every school probably worst at our high schools,” Salinas City Elementary School District asst. superintendent Jerry Stratton said.

Stratton’s schools are imbedded in these communities – sometimes parents really don’t watch where they’re parking.

“I’m going to have a traffic guard at this school in the morning and afternoon to help move people and move them out,” Stratton said.

Every school in the district also has made another adjustment.

“We stagger our drop offs here so kids come at certain times in the morning and they leave at different times,” Stratton said.

But even with those techniques, Stratton said it will still be hard find it hard to find a space.

“You’re beating the clock because if you get here too close for when it’s time to get out, you’re parking who knows where,” Foss said.

NewsChannel 5 should point out that on Thursday, parents said there was a field trip getting back late. So that could have caused some of the congestion but normally here finding parking is hard.

Stratton said the only really solution would to build an airport style parking lot. But the likelihood of that happening is slim because these schools were built in the middle of these neighborhoods.