GREENFIELD — At Four Corners Elementary School for a few minutes five days a week, traffic on Ferrante Avenue is a mess and, say neighbors, there’s a serious accident waiting to happen.
That’s what half a dozen residents living near the elementary school said at a recent public safety meeting of the Greenfield School Committee.
In response, the School Committee is thinking about placing a right-turn only sign exiting the school’s driveway to tackle one traffic flow aspect, the Health, Safety, Security, & Facilities Subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Caron said.
“This is my quick first-step solution, by quick, I mean, I hope,” Caron said.
There are a host of other ideas that were tossed around as well, including making the north side of Ferrante Avenue from Bernardston Road to the school driveway a no-parking zone during school pick up and drop off hours.
These ideas were discussed before the meeting with Caron, Principal Jake Toomey and Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh.
Another idea, presented by one Ferrante Avenue resident was to stagger the times when students leave the school. The plan took a couple different iterations: having set shift times when students are suppose to come and go from school or to have an option for students to stay 20 minutes later in school while most students depart at the typical time.
The shift times was not something that Toomey thought was easily doable. Instead, he appeared to lean toward having some students stay in the school a little longer. The catch with that idea is having a teacher stay later to watch over children without paying overtime. But it was a popular idea among the residents and committee members.
“I don’t think it can be solved right now, but it’s interesting to study,” School Committee member Susan Hollins said.
Caron agreed, saying it is something to look into and can be brought further at a future meeting.
There were also conversations around having student pick up being concentrated around Cherry Street, at the back end of the school, but that will require a formal walkway to be constructed. It could also lead to more traffic overflowing onto Cherry Street, Caron said.
The subcommitee decided the school will push forward with the idea of a right-turn only sign on school property to control traffic out of the driveway, particularly at the end of the school day. This will have to be paid for by the schools in all likelihood, and will have to go forward to the full School Committee.
As for creating a no-parking zone during specific hours, that will have to be done by the city, Caron said, and not the schools. Those at the meeting also stressed that even if that was established by the city, they will need police to enforce it.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264