Car Rider Procedures

Coloma Elementary Dismissal Procedures

Dismissal can be hectic when your task is to move 300+ children from one place to the next in a relatively small area filled with moving vehicles. For those new to Coloma Elementary, our first priority as a staff is student safety. After safety, we want our process to be efficient.

In order to maintain student safety, it is critical that we keep walkers and transportation separated. This is why walkers are dismissed from the rear of the building. If we have car riders, bus riders, and walkers coming out of the same exits it becomes very easy to lose track of where students should be going. I know this from dismissal plans at schools where I was previously principal. We do have walkers that exit the building up front, but they are walking to the Intermediate building to link up with a walker or car riding sibling that attends that building. That group is escorted by staff, given the hazards of buses and cars waiting at the front side of the school.

As for our riders, we dismiss bus riders out of two doors adjacent to the bus lane that passes between the Intermediate building and the Elementary. Teachers escort bus riders to their buses and ensure they get on the buses they are supposed to. Once those teachers have their bus riders securely on their buses, they come to the car rider area to assist with that process.

Finally, our car riders wait in the Multipurpose Room for staff to call them out to traffic cones, when their ride pulls forward to a marked cone. We need cars to pull as far forward as possible in the drop off lane so that we can load as many vehicles as possible in batches. This will make pick up go quicker for everyone. The drop off lane is a fire lane so parking there is prohibited by law. If you need to park, please park in a space. Students will not be released for an early pick up after 3:00. We have many cars who wait in line and to allow someone to park and bypass the line would not be fair to the parents waiting in line.

If dismissal plans change, call the office before 3:00 so that we can communicate the change to our staff. We will not make changes to the regular dismissal plan after 3:00. The car rider line will continue to get quicker as everyone gets into the routine. We average 16 minutes for dismissal when everyone is on the same page. Thank you for your support!