Tomorrow is the big day if you’re a 7th grader! If you’re not, then Wednesday is your first day. Either way, we’re excited to have you and can’t wait to welcome you to SoJo! If you’re looking for bell schedules, Hello Week dress-up themes, or other date-specific information, we keep our Google Calendar up-to-date. That same calendar also shows up in Parent Square; just click the detailed view of the calendar event for more info. We also post all Parent Square posts to the school website.
Also, if you were hoping for a map to go over with your student prior to school starting, you can view the classroom map and bell schedules here. We aren’t allowed to post them on the website for security reasons, but we checked and we can send it to you this way since you only get this if you have a verified email address.
Let’s Talk About the Parking Lot
As you can probably guess if you’ve been near the school at all recently, the parking lot is NOT finished. On top of that, 2700 W is undergoing some repaving that also isn’t done. When it rains, it pours. In fact, that’s exactly what pushed everything back so much – we’ve had a lot of rain the last few weeks, and even more the last few days. That rain has identified some new sinkholes both in our parking lot and on 2700 W, making it impossible for crews to pour concrete or lay asphalt. They are working hard to get it done ASAP, but it won’t be done before we start tomorrow.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PARKING LOT INSTRUCTIONS
Expect delays. We’re going to be operating with a smaller parking lot and ongoing construction for the rest of this week. We should have the full parking lot by next week – barring any major weather issues. Please plan for drop off & pick up to take a bit longer to navigate. Watch out for each other and please be patient.
Here’s a picture taken Monday, August 19, showing how the parking looks:
And here are those parts, but labeled:
We’ve divided what follows into four sections:
- Drop Off & Pick Up
- Busing
- Walking
- 2700 W Repaving
Drop Off and Pick Up
If you are dropping off or picking up (no parking, please), you will use the outer loop of the north parking lot. For this to work, there are three main things:
- Drop off or pick up in the RIGHT lane. Keep the LEFT lane open for movement. Do not stop in the left lane.
- Pull as far around the loop as you can.
- Students only load from the sidewalk.
Here’s a picture of what we mean:
Again, pull as far around the loop as you can before pulling into the right lane, and keep the left lane moving at all times. No loading from the left lane.
A NOTE ON DROPPING THEM OFF ELSEWHERE: You have the option of dropping your student off further away from the school (7-11, for example), but 2700 W is still going to be under construction. This means there is no shoulder on 2700 W to use to pull over to drop off. If you do this, you will block traffic on 2700 W and make the whole situation even worse. If you drop them off somewhere else to have them walk, don’t do it on 2700 W. We also don’t want you to use residential streets behind the school for that either. Really, our options are limited, so just be as patient as you can be.
Busing
The bus lane will be open and functioning. Students will use the sidewalks on both sides of the bus lane to go out to their bus. Students might have to check both sides of the loop to locate their bus. Students will load from the sidewalk. Here’s a picture:
Please do not use the bus lane for drop off or pick up – even after buses leave. More buses may come in, and it just sends mixed signals to kids about what part of the parking lot is for what. If you’re not a bus, don’t go in the bus lane.
Walking
Whether you’re walking to seminary or walking to and from the school, the outside sidewalks on the north and south sides of the school are where you’ll walk. NOTE: The south side is still having a bit of concrete poured as marked with the red ‘x’ below, so students will walk across the asphalt for that small stretch. See the picture for more:
Above all else, just don’t walk anywhere there is active construction going on. We’ll have people out to guide you, but also encourage your children to use the sidewalks and don’t go out where things are obviously unfinished.
2700 W Repaving
Like our parking lot, the repaving of 2700 W is about two weeks behind schedule due to sinkholes and soft spots. They keep finding them just like we did in the parking lot. They will be digging up the soft spots and fixing them right in front of the school today and tomorrow morning. This means that you will be driving in the modified lanes pictured below:
Note that those lines we put on the picture aren’t there in real life. Instead, you’ll be driving around cones – just like you used to do in driver’s education. While we can’t require you to only make a right turn out of the parking lot, it will help tremendously if you can plan ahead and route yourself home by turning right when you leave the parking lot. There is no center lane to turn into if you’re going left, so right makes it much faster to get out.
Final Parking Lot Thoughts
This is the world of construction and natural weather events. We wish it weren’t so, but it is. Please, please read and follow these instructions, and please, please, please be patient with each other and the process. We hope to be basking in new and expanded parking lot glory next week, but this week is going to be slow, frustrating and full of caution tape. Plan ahead, and plan for it to be slow.
We’ll keep you updated if the process changes via ParentSquare and on our website. Thank you in advance for your patience.