School organization

Officials at city’s most-crowded elementary working hard to keep traffic flowing

Dennis J. Carroll | For The New Mexican

8/31/2008 - 9/1/08

If they weren't running a school, Principal Janis Devoti and her staff at Piñon Elementary School on Santa Fe's south side could well be directing float traffic in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"Heather Hodgkins, fourth grade, sidewalk lane," teacher Colleen Korce barked into her walkie-talkie at the Camino de los Caballos entrance into the school parking lot.

Down about 25 parading cars into the parking lot, another teacher would escort Heather to the family car as it pulled up next to the curb. One more of about
700 children at Santa Fe Public Schools' most crowded elementary school had been delivered safely to a parent or other kid picker-upper at the end of a recent school day.

"We've become very creative in knowing how to get kids in their cars," said Devoti, who has been the principal here since 1992. "We have been at it a long time."

It was only the second day of the year, but Devoti and her teachers, outfitted with the walkie-talkies, an electronic bullhorn or two and the ever-present orange safety vests, had the complicated routine of getting the kids out of the school and into waiting buses and parent vehicles down pat; at 2:50 p.m., about 200 cars were lined up from Paseo de los Pueblos down Camino de los Caballos and into the tiny parking lot. By 3:15, the last bus had pulled out, and the last kid had been safely handed off to a a waiting parent or other.

"They've got this down pretty good," said crossing guard Johnny Serna, who had been posted at the crosswalk at Camino de los Caballos and Avenida de San Marcos. "We've never had a problem because they are so organized."

Serna was stationed at about the same spot where Korce asked a driver who they were there to pick up and relayed the information down the line.

"Who should I call for you?" Korce asked drivers whose cars she didn't recognize.

Also on traffic duty, kindergarten teacher Ida Lucero said even new teachers quickly learn to recognize which kid belongs to which incoming vehicle.

"Within a month we can memorize most of the cars," Lucero said.

Also memorizing the cars, and the occasional license-plate number, are some nearby residents. As the school's now sprawling boundaries have grown from near La Cienega on the west to Camino Carlos Rey on the east, the crowded school's neighbors have endured blocked driveways, increasing congestion and the occasional rude parent, who will park on a lawn instead of in the street or school parking lot.

"They do block you in," said one neighbor in the 2900 block of Camino de los Caballos, who asked not to be identified. "The cars squeeze you in, and some inconsiderate parents will park in your driveway."

The issue has prompted numerous community meetings between school staff and neighbors and pleas to the school board to remedy the situation.

The board approved a rezoning plan for this school year that that has led to the relocation of about 30 students to Chaparral Elementary near Zia Road and Yucca Street, north of Rodeo. That doesn't include the uncounted new students in the area who would have gone to Piñon, but instead attend Chaparal.

Still, the elementary school last year had 706 students, the third-largest enrollment in the district, after the two high schools. Student enrollment is expected to be about the same this year.

At one point last year, plans were afoot to have students dropped off and picked up at the nearby Santa Fe County Fairgrounds, 3229 Rodeo Road, but that idea never really got off the ground because of safety and other logistical concerns.

Devoti said the most promising remedy is the current work under way to, in essence, turn the school around. An exit being built out of the southwest side of the parking lot would take parent traffic around the school, thus avoiding the looping back onto Camino de los Caballos.

District spokeswoman Erica Landry said that project could be completed in March 2009, but few seem to be actually expecting completion that soon, sometime in 2010 might be considered more likely.

Landry also noted that the district will break ground Sept. 19 for construction of a new $18 million elementary school in Rancho Viejo, which is expected to open for 460 students in August 2010.

In the meantime, Devoti said, the school staff will continue to try to find ways to be a good neighbor.

She said that, in discussions with a neighborhood association, the school has agreed to stagger its early morning hours, offering a childcare program as early as 6:30 a.m. and scheduling after-hour school events, such as open houses, so that all the students and parents are not at the school at the same time.

Athletic events have been curtailed, and Piñon has limited the size of the schools that it will compete against in order to further reduce traffic congestion.

Devoti said students and parents are repeatedly reminded to be considerate of neighbors' traffic and other concerns.

She also said construction work on the parking lot extension has been restricted during the early morning hours in order to accommodate the neighbors and reduce traffic congestion.

In rare circumstances, Devoti has summoned Santa Fe city police to enforce neighborhood parking restrictions.

Nick Apodaca, president of the Pueblos de Rodeo Road Neighborhood Association, said the school has been cooperating with neighbors to solve problems when they arise and prevent new ones.

"(Devoti) seems to be really helpful and concerned about the community's issues with the school," he said.

Contact Dennis Carroll at 986-3091 or dcarroll@sfnewmexican.com.