Marzena Whitmore got an ideal parking spot in front of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Wednesday morning because she has a “zero-hour” class that starts 90 minutes before the official first bell. By the time she went to get something out of her vehicle moments before that first bell cars were packed along the main road and side streets for several blocks.
However, a just-arriving student also managed to find a parking spot right in front of the school just before the bell rang. The catch is the car was extending beyond the curb into a driveway and a police car was parked nearby across the street.
Both students said they are generally adjusting well to the consolidation from two high schools last year into one at JDHS this year, including transportation to and from home. But each also offered examples of why some aspects of the district’s plans with parking and buses aren’t working out entirely as hoped, which has officials making adjustments and recommendations to navigate the bumps in the proverbial road.
A car illegally parked in front of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé by a student arriving just before the start of classes extends past the curb Wednesday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Illegal parking problems at JDHS resulted in numerous tickets being issued last week, which the Juneau Police Department subsequently downgraded to warnings. In addition, overcrowding of some school buses is being reported by parents, the football coach says a handful of players taking buses are arriving late at practice due to later end times for school, and a park-and-ride option from Thunder Mountain Middle School seeking to ease the parking situation at JDHS is getting few — if any — takers.
Passing up the park-and-ride
The sizeable parking lot at TMMS — which was a high school for 16 years until being converted to a middle school in the consolidation — was nearly empty Wednesday morning. But Whitmore said parking at TMMS and taking the bus that comes by at 9 a.m. to JDHS isn’t a practical option for her.
“I have a zero hour so I have to be here by eight o’clock every morning,” she said. “I also don’t have a sixth period so I get to go home early and it doesn’t really seem useful for me.”
Other students driving to JDHS cited reasons such as wanting access to their car at the school, and the impracticality of driving to a parking lot ten miles away from the school and then taking a bus, for not using the park-and-ride option.
About a half-dozen JDHS students were waiting at the TMMS bus stop just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, all of whom walked or were dropped off by a parent. Most said they aren’t seeing any students parking vehicles and then catching the bus, with one answering “not recently.”
But one practical use of the new stop at TMMS is being suggested by Rich Sjoroos, coach of the Juneau Huskies high school football team. He said about five players are having trouble catching the bus home from school, getting their gear and then arriving at practice in time, so he’s suggesting players possibly keep their gear at JDHS and catch the bus directly to TMMS where the team practices.
“I don’t want anybody feeling like they’re letting the team down by being late,” he said. “So I can always kind of work around that with my schedule. That’s not a problem, but I am trying to find some workarounds for them.”
The bus that travels between TMMS and JDHS is carrying about a half-dozen students during the morning and “in the afternoon has had up to 20 riders,” Kristin Bartlett, the Juneau School District’s chief of staff, wrote in an email Wednesday in response to questions from the Empire. She said that indicates students are already finding it useful in ways beyond the park-and-ride concept.
“JSD has been referring to that particular route as the ‘park and ride’ route because it goes straight to JD and back, but students do not necessarily have to drive to the school to catch that bus and some students have just been taking that shuttle in the afternoon to get to activities, like football practice,” she wrote. “It is just another option for students to travel between the valley and downtown.”
Also, Bartlett wrote, it “seems like it is a convenient option for some parents too if they can drop their child off at TM to catch a nonstop bus rather than driving them downtown if it is out of their way.”
The parking lot at Thunder Mountain Middle School is mostly empty shortly after the start of classes Wednesday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Problems with illegal parking
The start of the school year last Thursday resulted in numerous instances of illegal parking along streets, bus lanes and in employee parking areas by the enlarged student population at JDHS. Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos said Tuesday tickets were issued during the first two days of school to violators.
“We had several cars that got tickets which we converted to warnings,” he said. “It’s something we’re continuing to monitor, and it’s back to school so we’re giving everybody some grace and giving them warnings. I do know in the past we’ve had problems in the same area.”
A shortage of parking at JDHS — especially compared to the Thunder Mountain campus — was cited by many students when consolidation options were being debated earlier this year. However, officials determined JDHS was the only building of the two with capacity for all students in grades 9-12, a key component related to other aspects of the consolidation plan.
Among the students having difficulty finding a suitable parking spot on Wednesday was Landry Dillingham, a junior who lives in Lemon Creek, who said he prefers to drive because it’s quicker and “I’d like to sleep in as much as I can.”
“It’s not as bad as a lot of us thought it would be, but it is pretty bad,” he said. “It’s definitely worse than any years that I can remember.”
A JPD officer was patrolling the sidewalk in front of JDHS on foot — and his car was near the entrance — just before the start of school on Wednesday morning. But that didn’t prevent the car that was illegally parked just before the bell sounded.
Bartlett, in her email, stated school district and city leaders are evaluating options to alleviate parking problems around JDHS. She also noted the school “has hundreds fewer students than it once did” many years ago before Thunder Mountain High School opened, when Juneau had a much bigger overall student population.
One complication is the district, as part of the consolidation, turned over two nearby buildings — the district’s administrative building and the Marie Drake Building that housed alternative programs — to the City and Borough of Juneau. Those buildings, along with the nearby Michael J. Burns building — are in the process of accommodating CBJ employees, community organizations and other uses that will add to the neighborhood’s parking demands.
City Manager Katie Koester, in a text message, noted that starting Sept. 1 part of the CBJ Finance Department and all of the IT department will be moving to the Marie Drake Building.
“Parking is a huge challenge there and we will need all available spaces,” she wrote. “Parking longer term (for community uses of the building) will also need to be cared for.”
Fusses and fixes for buses
Saana Amundson, an eighth-grade student waiting downtown to catch the school bus to TMMS, said it’s a longer ride than if she were going to Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School in Lemon Creek this year. But she said it’s not that much longer and, on the plus side, it’s a chance to do a bit of extra last-minute homework in a rush.
Similar views were voiced by a small group of other middle school students waiting to catch the bus at the Hurff Ackerman Saunders Federal Building. But Isabel Delgad0, a JDHS sophomore waiting at TMMS, wasn’t happy about making the trip.
“We live really close to here, so it was very inconvenient for us to have to go all the way to downtown,” she said.
Students board the bus for Thunder Mountain Middle School at the Hurff Ackerman Saunders Federal Building on Wednesday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
A more significant problem of overcrowding on at least one bus was reported by some parents who said students were forced to sit on the floor. Jacob Tapia said he has two children who are riding school bus route 44, which spans from Lena Loop Road to JDHS, and he’s concerned about their safety.
“I don’t ever want to hear or see my kids sitting on that bus again,” he said, adding he planned to drive his kids to and from school when his work schedule permits “until that bus situation gets fixed.”
Bartlett stated that route has been adjusted due to an upward trend in the number of students riding. She said 29 passengers were aboard last Thursday, which rose to 44 on Monday.
“The report after a review of the bus video on that day was that one student was standing in the back row next to the single-rider seat,” she wrote.
The district contracts with First Student for bus services and the company “will be making sure that all students are seated while in transit,” Bartlett added.
“As the bus drivers track how many students are choosing to ride the bus from each neighborhood, bus schedules are being adjusted to accommodate new ridership, maximize efficiency, and minimize wait times,” she wrote. “Kindergarten students just started yesterday, so now First Student will have a better understanding of ridership for each route. First Student adjusts schedules throughout the first weeks of the school year.”
Bartlett also noted the district, like others in the state, is facing a shortage of drivers and safety monitors. The district is recruiting for both positions, including offering a $2,500 completion bonus as an incentive, with more information available by calling the Juneau First Student office at (907) 789-7352.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
