Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student involved in a car accident this afternoon after dismissal at Churchill. Police were on the scene.

Details? I asked dd and she didn't know anything.

Perhaps word of mouth will spread at school today. I didn't see the accident. I saw the cars and the police talking with the student driver. The student was upset.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone want to put guesses on what time the school staff empties out the faculty lot tomorrow even though it is only supposed to be a half day for students? Not sure if the new principal will make them stay or not for "training". Benz was never around so her staff routinely took off for the hills on days like tomorrow.

LOL - I guess since the buses don't jam the faculty lot, they will probably be gone before the Seniors.

Can you believe that Mrs. West was able to leave the lot to get her daughter at daycare? Don't they know that Cooper has his private lacrosse lesson at 3?

Anonymous wrote:Student involved in a car accident this afternoon after dismissal at Churchill. Police were on the scene.

Details? I asked dd and she didn't know anything.

On grading days generally you can work anywhere unless you’re a first year teacher or your principal tells you otherwise for some reason. Teachers are not children. It’s often easier to get stuff done elsewhere because there are no distractions.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone want to put guesses on what time the school staff empties out the faculty lot tomorrow even though it is only supposed to be a half day for students? Not sure if the new principal will make them stay or not for "training". Benz was never around so her staff routinely took off for the hills on days like tomorrow.

Tomorrow is an early release day for grading. So no, there won’t be any training tomorrow.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone want to put guesses on what time the school staff empties out the faculty lot tomorrow even though it is only supposed to be a half day for students? Not sure if the new principal will make them stay or not for "training". Benz was never around so her staff routinely took off for the hills on days like tomorrow.

LOL - I guess since the buses don't jam the faculty lot, they will probably be gone before the Seniors.

Anyone want to put guesses on what time the school staff empties out the faculty lot tomorrow even though it is only supposed to be a half day for students? Not sure if the new principal will make them stay or not for "training". Benz was never around so her staff routinely took off for the hills on days like tomorrow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always the ability of parents and students to use cellphone footage to post on the internet and send to news outlets.

Ah yes the news will love that. "Entitled parents and teens complain about 15 whole minutes of difficulty twice a day". Hopefully it will show an Audi going the wrong way out of the lot. Or how about this headline "Potomac Parents Don't Like Waiting and Neither Do Their Kids" or "School so good that they only thing people have to complain about is the pick up and drop off." I'm sure it will all go viral and they will send all the resources necessary to make more roads for you.

Sooo true!!

Student involved in a car accident this afternoon after dismissal at Churchill. Police were on the scene.

Except for the few who choose to do so illegally. A dangerous situation which is totally unnecessary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't aren't the buses a problematic factor in the morning? They arrive at different times to the school and all can use the loop designed for buses at the school. If the bus loop isn't big enough for the volume of buses, it only makes sense that MCPS Transportation can come up with a time table so all the buses are not picking up at the same time.

Blocking students into the student lot is creating the mess. Sure, students are violating traffic safety rules but they also need to be able to leave their assigned lot at dismissal.

In the morning, the bus just pulls up, unloads, and leaves. In the afternoon, buses have to sit there a while to wait for everyone to get on.

They don't HAVE to sit there. The bus drivers choose to get there when they do. I was in the neighborhood and I saw the buses lining up at 1:50pm. The drivers use the next 40 minutes as social time with the other bus drivers.

The bus arrival in the afternoon could be staggered just like it is in the morning. Problem solved.

The buses do not belong in the student lot. They are blocking the flow of traffic as they sit for 15 minutes past dismissal to wait for children to get on. Meanwhile, none of the students can leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't aren't the buses a problematic factor in the morning? They arrive at different times to the school and all can use the loop designed for buses at the school. If the bus loop isn't big enough for the volume of buses, it only makes sense that MCPS Transportation can come up with a time table so all the buses are not picking up at the same time.

Blocking students into the student lot is creating the mess. Sure, students are violating traffic safety rules but they also need to be able to leave their assigned lot at dismissal.

In the morning, the bus just pulls up, unloads, and leaves. In the afternoon, buses have to sit there a while to wait for everyone to get on.

Buses could come at staggering times if planned. They could also wait at the Hoover bus loop as a holding that is 2 minutes away from Churchill. They could be radioed by staff when there is room in the bus loop.

Maybe they should have valet?

Actually, it may be that this is an effective deterrent to parent pickups in the long run. Yesterday, my dd wanted to go to Cabin John after school. In the past, I picked her up and drove her but yesterday I told her to walk. We also have a bus that comes quite a long way from our house (about 3/4 mile, I guess, but we are 2+ miles walk from school). I told her to take the bus this afternoon because I don't want to deal with pick up.

I'll probably give in on both when it is rainy or very cold, but if the principal's objective was to clear out parent pick up a bit, she succeeded for at least one person.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always the ability of parents and students to use cellphone footage to post on the internet and send to news outlets.

Ah yes the news will love that. "Entitled parents and teens complain about 15 whole minutes of difficulty twice a day". Hopefully it will show an Audi going the wrong way out of the lot. Or how about this headline "Potomac Parents Don't Like Waiting and Neither Do Their Kids" or "School so good that they only thing people have to complain about is the pick up and drop off." I'm sure it will all go viral and they will send all the resources necessary to make more roads for you.

You really need to scroll down and read the whole thread about the fancy cars at Quince Orchard and other schools. They are NOT limited to Churchill or the other "W" schools. I know for a fact that the majority of the cars are not high-end fancy cars because my kids go there. Are there some? Yes, but most of them are their parents old cars, used cars or plain old Honda's, Fords and Mazda's. Most importantly, your comments have nothing to do with the dangerous situation that the new parking lot logistics have caused.

Please - who are you kidding? My kid goes there as well and the student lot is not filled with a majority of old cars as you claim, Plenty of new jeeps and other new cars or fancy cars such as volvo's, Mercedes and bmw's.

My kid has not complained once. DC says the new rules make it easier because you don't have all these parents trying to cut through the lot causing issues. Lots of the parking lot issues are caused by the parents who are in such a rush to drop their kid and get out that they would use all the areas of the senior lot and then the kids would have to walk through trying to avoid all these cars driving in all directions.

This is the typical Churchill rant. I want what I want and don't make rules that might make it difficult for me or my little snowflake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't aren't the buses a problematic factor in the morning? They arrive at different times to the school and all can use the loop designed for buses at the school. If the bus loop isn't big enough for the volume of buses, it only makes sense that MCPS Transportation can come up with a time table so all the buses are not picking up at the same time.

Blocking students into the student lot is creating the mess. Sure, students are violating traffic safety rules but they also need to be able to leave their assigned lot at dismissal.

In the morning, the bus just pulls up, unloads, and leaves. In the afternoon, buses have to sit there a while to wait for everyone to get on.

Buses could come at staggering times if planned. They could also wait at the Hoover bus loop as a holding that is 2 minutes away from Churchill. They could be radioed by staff when there is room in the bus loop.