Security Overhaul: No more parking in front of Highland Elementary

New parking and traffic rules are in place around Highland Elementary, prohibiting parking along Emerald Street and allowing a single crosswalk instead of the former two.

Parents are asked to drive onto the drop off zone on school property to leave their children at school and help traffic flow while keeping students safe.

The change comes after people had been parking and crossing the streets in different sections. The City is now marking Emerald Street, in front of the school, as a no parking zone and limiting all crossing to a single crosswalk, to funnel people to a single safer area.

A parent told ABC-7 she would like to see a blinking school zone sign, something the City said the school itself would have to buy and the city install.

With the old crosswalk taken out, other visual cues will also be added to help enforce these rules.

“We are going to be painting the curb for no parking and that will hopefully make it more visible to the parents who are parking along Emerald, but shouldn’t be because of the new no parking zone. And we will continue to monitor the situation and look for other engineering and design solutions,” said David Dollahon, Assistant City Manager for Operations.

Parents and students can expect to see police officers enforcing these new rules starting next week.

Everyone is being asked to actually get on school property to drop off their children.