Pick up and Drop off Reminders
Back to school means back to the pick up/drop off line up! Just a few reminders about our protocols at McMillan.
All students in grades 1 - 5 should be dropped off in the upper parking lot loop. This takes a few minutes, but with everyone's cooperation is the most efficient way to get students in and out of school. Caregivers should pull all the way up (as far as they can) and then students should exit or enter their vehicle from the sidewalk. You can then pull back out into the loop and exit the lot. Patience is the key here!
If you need to park your car and accompany your child to the school, please use an available parking space, or park on the street. If Oakhill has no available space, please try Champlain and use the catwalk. It is very important that vehicles are NOT left unattended in the loop. The entire curbside space is a designated fire lane, and vehicles parked here are in violation of our Fire Marshall. If you do choose to leave your vehicle there, you can expect a staff member to remind you of this rule. Please accept this reminder politely, as it is our job to ensure that everyone is aware of this expectation.
The front entrance driveway is reserved for staff members, and daycare buses and vans. Daycares are caregivers picking up more than one family of children, and so may need to sit and wait a little longer. Please respect this policy. The small back parking lot (off of McMillan) is also reserved for staff and for specific students needing close access to the school. No other drop off or pick up is permitted there as there is limited turn around space.
Students will be supervised on the playground from 8:15 - 8:30 and from 2:25 - 2:40. If you run into a circumstance where you are unexpectedly late (past 2:40), please contact the school and let us know. In this case, your child will be waiting at the office for you and you may use the front driveway to pick them up. The expectation is that this will not be a daily or even regular occurence. Similarly, if your child is arriving late, due to an appointment, or an unexpected event, please do drop them off at the front door, for their safety. Again this should be the exceeption and not the rule. Unfortunately last year we had several families regularly coming 1 or 2 minutes late to take advantage of front door drop off. This is not okay, as it creates a steady flow of students at the office who need to be checked in during the busy first minutes of the day, muddies the foyer during poor weather and results in this students always missing the first minutes of typical classroom morning routines. Our goal at McMillan is for all students to develop a sense of personal responsibility and self confidence. Arriving alongside their peers and following through with expectations for punctuality and behavior are key to that!
Our pick up and drop off routine is not a perfect thing! It truly can be 10 minutes of craziness, but if everyone follows the rules it will be 10 minutes of safe and organized chaos, and will then be over, with all students safely accounted for. We appreciate all the cooperation we had from the majority of McMillan families last year, and look forward to even more buy in this year.