The circle drive is now a no parking zone and violators may be ticketed by the police department. All visitors are asked to park in the front lot and enter the campus through the secure check-in area before being buzzed into the school. These changes have been made to increase campus safety.

“We have asked parents and people who are coming into the building to park in the silver lot and instead the silver circle drive,” principal Lane Buban said. “The circle drive is a fire lane not a parking spot.”

There are several safety hazards people create when they park in the circle drive during school hours.

“Students have been seen going out to cars in the circle drive during lunch,” Buban said. “They have been observed eating lunch and sitting in cars with people who we don’t know, which is a big safety concern.”

Parents are still allowed to bring lunch for their children, but they must come in through the office to do so as that reduces the safety risk to students.

“Students instead, they leave the front of the building as if they are going to get their lunch,” Buban said. “But get in a car and leave when they weren’t properly checked out and this is another safety concern.”

Visitors are now required to park in the silver parking lot that is attached to the circle drive. This lot was reallocated as a visitor lot at the beginning of the year to make room for all visitors that may come on campus during the day.

“The circle drive is a fire lane,” Buban said. “If we have got several cars parked in the circle drive and we need to get fire trucks on campus, we can’t get them close to the building and that would be a huge safety issue.”

Not only is the unauthorized parking an obstacle to emergency, personally it also poses a threat to the immediate safety of students on campus.

“We also have issues with kids ordering lunch and getting food from people we don’t know,” Buban said. “All of those reasons prompted us to make a decision to work with the police department to have parents and visitors park in the silver lot for anything during the middle of the day.”

Buban has sent out a letter and three phone calls to parents in regards to the changes of the circle drive and is working to keep the lines of communication open with the public and the school.

“I want parents and visitors to work with us,” Buban said. “I want them to work with the school to help us do the things that we’re doing that are necessary to keep our students and school safe.”

Though some of the changes that have been made this year caused minor inconveniences for some, the overall safety of the school has continued to improve and benefit the campus as a whole.

“The safety of my students and this campus is the most important thing that I see my job being, paired with their actual education,” Buban said. “Safety and education are the top two things in my book as far as how I approach running the school.”