Safety Tips for Dropping Off and Picking Up Students

Dear Parents,

This month is full of opportunities for celebration and contemplation as the holidays begin and the calendar year comes to an end.  We want to wish all of our Draper Elementary families a peaceful and joyous holiday season.  We appreciate all that you do to support your child and our school. 

We are excited about recent plans outlined by our district for parking lot improvements and a plan for an additional access to the school.  We know how crowded and inconvenient our parking lot and single access are, and we look forward to problem-solving with the architectural firm, Draper City, and Canyons School District as we plan for making it a safer situation for the next school year.

Student safety is always a concern for school staff, but keeping children safe in the parking lot requires the cooperation of everyone – from school staff to parents and the children themselves.

Here are a few safety tips that drivers should observe when dropping children off and picking up students at school:

• Please be attentive to children and other vehicles and be courteous to other drivers.
• Obey the speed limit and traffic rules.  Slow down when entering the parking lot
• If you are parking, you need to park in a designated parking space, get out of your car, and walk across the crosswalk to pick up your child from the pick up area.  If no spaces are available, or if you’d prefer to remain in your car, you need to join those waiting in the “pick-up” lane. 
• The side parking lot is closed to traffic after school.  We’ve had many close calls - it is too congested to have vehicles pulling in and out of the east lot when children are crossing and two lanes of cars are entering the main lot.  
• Use sidewalks and crosswalks.   Do not cross in between buses or cars.
• Please note that our parking lot is one way.
• Please respect homes and business around our school.  Please do not use a business parking lot as a pick up location.  Please do not block the driveways of our neighbors.
• Please respect school staff who are enforcing traffic rules.

We know space is limited, but we can accomplish our goal of a safe and civil parking lot if we all work together.  Thank you for your cooperation.

- Principal Piper Riddle