COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Coldwater School District is getting ready to roll out a new system this fall designed to make it safer and quicker for parents to pick up their kids in the afternoon when classes are dismissed for the day. Coldwater School Superintendent Terry Boguth says she had a meeting with Coldwater Public Safety Director Mark Bartell with the two of them visiting both the Max Larsen and Jefferson Elementary buildings to scope out how the plan would work.
Instead of the parents having to find a parking place and then come into the school possibly with other children in hand while they pick up their kids after class, there will be ten to twelve staging areas mapped out where the vehicles will pull up and park and meet with someone who is equipped with a walkie-talkie. The school staff will take the names of the families and who the kids are that need to be picked up.
That information will be radioed into the building and the students will be lined up for dismissal based on the order of the parked cars. At that point, an adult, whether it be a teacher or an aide, will be assisting at each of the staging areas, escorting the youngsters to the waiting vehicles and as those cars drive off, the next ten will pull up.
According to Boguth, there will have to be some changes to the street no parking signs at Max Larsen but otherwise, after parents are notified of the pending changes, they hope to possibly have the system in place before the end of this month.
