Maplewood Police reported on Twitter Tuesday that they had received a complaint of cars blocking drives in the 2800 block of Burgess Avenue.
The department Tweeted: “If you drop off or pick up your children @mrh_ecc be mindful of no parking areas and please do not block private driveways.”
In August some parents parked in no parking areas, including blocking driveways, as section of Burgess was closed to finish grading and landscaping by the MRH Early Childhood Center.
The MRH school district did not think things through. Getting children after school is a total nightmare! My grandchildren are walkers. I have to walk down to school to get them and wait at least 15 minutes or more for them to come out. No one is allowed to go into school and pick up their walker s you have to wait outside. What happens when the temperature drops. I think it is totally ridiculous and not very well thought out.
Looking at Google maps this is a large facility shoe-horned into densely built residential neighborhood. It looks like the school property is adjacent to the Steak & Shake parking lot. Maybe the helicopter parents can park in that lot and walk their little ones over? At 6-7 AM I doubt that lot is being used much.
I thought the plan was for the new ECC to have a drop-off zone. Parents actually have to park and walk their kid in for each drop-off and pick-up? Is that how things are these days? I’m really asking.
Signing in/out is for preschool children. But, a lot of parents take their kids into the school, instead of dropping off in the designated area. The parking lot they built (at a cost of $1,750,000.00) is a nightmare.
I live on Burgess. I was assured by the superintendent in 2016, that traffic would no longer be an issue with the new parking lot being built with the ECC expansion. It is an issue every day. Blocked driveways, speeding, people in no parking zones. The pre school entrance is closer to my street than parking in the school lot. Parents have to sign their kids in/out every day. There are NOT enough parking spaces in the parking lot, most of it taken up by teachers and staff. The enrollment is 582 students, more than the High School or the Elementary school. They have overbuilt for the amount of space the have. The comments AMAZED me back when school started. Parents were angry that Burgess was not open for them, due to construction. How do you think the residents on Burgess felt for 16months of construction? Parents were mad that the trash company wouldn’t change their route times to accommodate them. I wish all the unhappy parents would let the school district know how unhappy they are, because I’ve been told being stuck in traffic trying to get off my street is just how it’s going to be. Recently, after an employee of the school, directing traffic for the pre-school sing-a-long, asked a man to move his car that was in a “no parking zone”, he was ignored. I told the employee that the man parks illegally all the time. When the man drove away, he called me the “C” word. NOT COOL… So, now the police will be here regularly. The man with the foul mouth got a $75 ticket a week later for blocking a driveway. I would think with the over$500,000 (and that’s if every preschool parent pays reduced rates) and up to $900,000 @ full rate, the school district could afford to do things right for the parents dropping off their kids and for the residents around the school. This effects residents for blocks surrounding the school. MRH ECC is not being a good neighbor . I do sympathize with people trying to get their kids to school. Please let the school district know YOUR frustrations with the parking situation. They do have a way to alleviate the situation! They already own 2 houses on Burgess and 1 on the corner of Laclede Station Road. They could (with the purchase of 1 more house) build another parking lot, to relieve parents/residents headaches.
This sort of parking problem occurs on Sarah, as well, when it’s busy at Schlafly’s. I’ve seen people park IN someone’s driveway, half across someone’s driveway, and squarely, entirely in front of someone’s driveway. I’ve also seen the police respond quickly, and tow cars. Maybe it would help to post a sign or two that says, “If you block a driveway, you will be towed”.
Tow a few cars and this will stop in a hurry. I question whether anyone who lacks the awareness to realize they are blocking a driveway should be driving.
There was an unmarked car there this morning
Given MRH’s growth, continued crowding and other issues at the ECC is it time to talk about adding another elementary school to the district? The parking, traffic and blocking problems seem to be mostly the times when the pre-K is starting. That has to mean enrollment is growing even further at the youngest ages.
I think it’s just time to add more parking, if possible, not more schools. The schools are not over capcity. However, I live across the street from the elementary, and I can report that when a parent came to pick up his child from aftercare just last week, he parked across 2/3 of the end of my driveway and went into the building for 5-10 minutes. There were absolutely no other cars parked on either side of the street for 3-4 hoises in each directiion. This is, unfortunately, not an entirely rare situation. We would not have been able to leave our house in an emergency situation, or any other, short of pushing his car out of the way with ours. I did speak with him when he came oit and indicated the otherwise entirely empty street. He was very nice and apologetic. But I still can’t imagine why anyone would leave their car that way. I have been made late for work by this kind of parking in the mornings too. I’m not sure what would fix this problem.