The cycle begins anew: Another school year starts, another round of troubles appear. People will scramble to meet the challenges created by decisions made in prior school years, and the more things change the more they stay the same. Before school began, everyone was talking about how the student population has fallen in Bay District Schools. They said some schools should be closed and students rezoned. They said new schools should not be constructed.
    But that’s not what it looked like (or sounded like) on the ground this week, and some of that was a direct result of actions taken in the previous school year.
    I spent Monday morning following around Principal Denise Kelley at Breakfast Point Academy, a new K-8 school off Beckrich Road in Panama City Beach. While the school was built to serve 1,300 students and was expecting to open with only 550 or so, more than 750 were enrolled by opening day.
    The student drop-off loop was filled with cars passing through and parking along the curbs, squeaking past each other with only inches to spare. Those exiting had to drive onto curbs to pass those entering, because cars lined the driveway, and were abandoned in the far right lane of the street for a couple of blocks. Cars filled the parking lot and the sidewalks in some places, and blocked access to staff parking areas.
    A kindergarten orientation scheduled for that morning contributed to the near gridlock conditions, but it also could indicate what to expect when the school reaches its capacity. Another case in point: Backed up traffic on Mosley Drive because of parents trying to reach nearby Bay Haven Elementary School to drop off their children.
    Meanwhile, the new closedcampus lunch policy, which requires special paperwork and permissions before upperclassmen can leave campus for lunch, also has created overcrowding issues at area high schools.
    From Lynn Haven came a mother’s complaint that her daughter couldn’t find a place to park herself during her brief lunch period at Mosley High School. The freshman girl searched the lunchroom, then an outdoor seating area, and finally gave up.
    And a Bay High School junior tells the story of students nearly scuffling over long lines and lack of seating in the lunchroom. Sure, there are lots of places to sit outside in the courtyard by the library — if it isn’t raining, she said. And just wait until it turns cold.
    It’s a paradox that our world grows larger and smaller at the same time, and for the same reasons. And no matter how we think we’re prepared, there’s never good parking.
    Peace.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.