Schools

Schools Administration Explores Options For Traffic Flow, Parking At High School

The school district is looking at a later start time, other options to prevent traffic jams and overcrowding in the parking lot.

The Westlake city school district is looking at a variety of options to help reduce congestion and address parking issues that could arise next year following and .

Residents, especially neighbors to the high school, have expressed concerns about traffic flow and increased parking needs. Superintendent Dan Keenan said administrators are working to address those issues.

"We do have a route that we’ve been working on with Behnke (a landscape architect and planning firm) so we can have some pretty good traffic flow there," he said.

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Keenan said the current lot has about 90 spots that go unused on the average day and the new one will be only about 70 spaces smaller. The temporary lot to be used during construction will have about 20 spots to spare on the average day, Keenan said.

"In the last couple of years, we haven’t turned down one parking pass,” Keenan said. "It won’t be as big as our other lot, but we’re not building it for a Homecoming game."

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Administrators are considering a later start time to deal with traffic, and looking at alternative parking options for big events like encouraging parking at the middle school. They are also trying to make sure that big events like Music a la Mode and don’t coincide.

“We understand there’s going to be a lot of transition,” Keenan said. “Any time you’re making changes, it’s going to be a little less convenient than it has been. I don’t’ think it will be without notice but it’s well worth what the end product is and we’re trying to be forward thinking for people’s conveniences.”

For the most up-to-date information on construction, visit the school district's construction blog.


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