Secondary Campus Traffic Flow

Southeast Polk Families,

The Southeast Polk School District works to assure the safety and welfare of our students, staff and the public.  We have been working to improve the traffic flow for parents/guardians and students before and after school on our secondary campus. Below are the district’s efforts as well as some guidelines for parents/guardians and students to help continue to improve traffic flow.

Campus-Wide Efforts

• The District is working with local Law Enforcement Agencies and The Department of Transportation to develop an action plan for the stoplights on University Ave. and 80th street.
• The elected officials of the City of Pleasant Hill continue to prioritize traffic safety. With this in mind, the City is preparing to install Adaptive Signal Control Technology along E University Avenue, including from Copper Creek Drive to E University Avenue, including the intersection at NE 80th Street and Meacham Drive. An Adaptive Signal Control adjusts the timing of traffic lights to accommodate changing traffic patterns and eases congestion versus the current time-of-day signal timing schedule. According to the Department of Transportation, the new technology will improve travel time reliability by progressively moving vehicles through green lights, reduce congestion by creating smoother flow, and prolong the effectiveness of traffic signal timing. Similar systems have been implemented with great success in other Metro cities. Engineering design will begin Winter of 2019, with installation occurring throughout 2019. For more information about this project, visit www.pleasanthilliowa.org/projects.
• High School students who ride the bus are required to ride the transfer buses from the Junior High. We have added additional high school staff at the SC/JH parking lot to redirect high school bus riders attempting to avoid the transfer buses.
• Students who park their cars in the SC/JH lot have been instructed to use the sidewalk on the south side of the parking lot and to get to this sidewalk in the most direct route from their parked car.
• We are working with district vendors to avoid deliveries at peak traffic times to limit possible disruption of traffic flow.

Guidelines for Improved Traffic Flow

• Please be mindful of the time of day that you are coming to the secondary campus.  We would encourage a drop off prior to 7:10 at the Junior High to avoid higher traffic.
• Please follow these traffic flow instructions if you are dropping students off at the Junior High and/or Spring Creek.
• Please drop students off next to the curb in the drop-off area not in the middle of traffic movement or in parking spots.
• Please have your students prepared to exit the vehicle to allow for a steady flow of traffic at the drop off area.
• Options if you have students at both Spring Creek and the Junior High:
  • Option 1 – Drop them off at Spring Creek. The student can then walk to their appropriate building on the “yellow brick road” during the student release time between the buses.
  • Option 2 – Drop your Junior High student(s) first, and then proceed to drop off your Spring Creek student(s) *Please do not proceed from Spring Creek to the Junior High as this blocks the normal exiting flow of traffic from the JH.

Safety is a top priority. Thank you to parents/guardians that continue to navigate our campus with vigilance and patience.  Please do not hesitate to report unsafe driving behavior on our campus. Reports can be directed to the high school administration.  When making a report of this nature, please provide as much information as possible (license plate, make/model, the color of the car, date/time, etc.) to assist us in following up with the report.  

Thank you