How to Survive Carpool

WLE has evolved an efficient carpool process, and we appreciate your cooperation! All dismissals after 2:30 PM are through carpool or buses; there is no dismissal after 2:30 PM from the front office.

A Safe & Efficient Drop-Off

Enter the carpool line at the back parking lot. Follow arrows, and drive through the lot. Please be sure to follow the painted carpool arrows in the rear parking lot at all times and follow the flow of traffic. Do not make a left turn onto the campus even if there does not appear to be someone in front of you. This will help ensure that the traffic flows smoothly on the adjacent street (Optimist Farm Road). Besides, breaking in line would not send a very good message to your passengers either!

As you approach the sidewalk near the cafeteria and multi-purpose room, you will see WLE staff who provide supervision. The staff is working hard to move cars through as quickly as possible, and at the same time keeping SAFETY as the main issue for our children. There will always be a staff member at the front and end of the drop off lane to ensure that the lane is safe. This is the drop-off and pick-up zone. Students should never be dropped off in the back parking lot, at West Lake Middle School or on Optimist Farm Road.

Once you are in the drop off lane, you or your child open and close the car door. Please do not wait for someone to open your child's door. Waiting will slow traffic down considerably. SAFETY is and will be the main issue for all of our children and being patient will make this happen.

If you would like to drop off a middle school student, please pick up a purple tag from the front office. You will be able to drop your WLM student off by the cafeteria at the same time as your WLE school children. Middle school drop-off is for AM ONLY. No WLM pickups are allowed from the WLE carpool line in the afternoon.

A Safe & Efficient Pick-Up

Enter the carpool line at the back parking lot. Follow arrows, and drive through the lot. Please be sure to follow the painted carpool arrows in the rear parking lot at all times and follow the flow of traffic. If you arrive as the carpool line is forming, vehicles line up single file along the curb from the Car Pool Starting Point sign to the first entrance at the parking spaces. Then, two lines are formed in the parking lot area until the line loops back to the beginning where the double line began. Then, a single file line is resumed and spills over on to Optimist Farm Road. Do not make a left turn onto the campus even if there does not appear to be someone in front of you. This will help ensure that the traffic flows smoothly on the adjacent street (Optimist Farm Road).

Display your yellow carpool number on the rearview mirror of your vehicle in the afternoon line. It is not recommended that you make a copy of this number. Let us know if you lose a tag and we will issue you a new one. Many staff members assist in the afternoon carpool line, and it helps to have uniformity in each car.

If you are arriving early in the afternoon for carpool, consider coming in to the school for 30-45 minutes. There is always something that can be done in this span of time: visit the Media Center and help shelve books; tutor a child in reading, writing or math. These are all things that can be done in just that amount of time.

Please help your child learn his/her carpool number. If you are the parent of a kindergartner with an older sibling, please encourage them to sit together. (You may also want to write the number on a piece of paper to be kept in the backpack until the number has been memorized.) Please remind your child to listen for his/her number in the afternoons. Children are asked not to work, talk or read while listening for numbers. Please note that all numbers are called three times and then students' names are called. If your child does not come outside s/he was probably not listening to the teacher calling the numbers on the PA system. Children should also use the restroom and collect their items from the classroom before they enter the cafeteria. They are not allowed to leave the cafeteria once they have entered.

There are occasions where children do not come to carpool when they are supposed to. Please make sure your child knows how they are getting home. You must send a note to the classroom teacher any time you make a change in "going home" plans.

Please be patient! There are many reasons why we do things the way we do. Realize that we are acting in the safest and most efficient ways to guarantee the safety of all children.

Carpool ends promptly at 3:20 p.m. Any students who have not been picked up by this time will need to be signed out of the office. Please remember that it is not the office staff's responsibility to supervise your child after dismissal has ended. Should you run into circumstances beyond your control and will be late picking up your child, please call the office and let someone know of your situation.

If you decide to discontinue using carpool during the school year, please turn in your number. Many times students decide to use the bus instead of coming to carpool each day. Should this occur, please return your tag to the classroom teacher with a note saying you have finished using the carpool number. You may still pick up your child occasionally through the carpool line by giving the staff on duty your child's name. This will allow us to reuse the number rather than continue to add numbers to the system. This is greatly appreciated.

Through the cooperation of parents and students, we can make our dismissals run smoothly, efficiently and safely. Please help us protect all of the children at our school by following these very important guidelines.

Please feel free to call a PTA officer with any questions or concerns that you may have. If we do not have the answers for you, we will certainly try to direct you to the right person for the answer.