Parents are rushing in the mornings to drop off their kids and make it to work on time. There is a flood of students after school that want nothing more than to get home as soon as possible.

As the years go by that tide of students continues to increase, so does the growing number of parents lining up to pick up their children in the student parking lot, much to everyone’s dismay.

“I see how very busy it gets [in the other lot] that is actually the student drop off and parent pick up,” security guard Kelly Pechloff stated. Pechloff has worked in the student parking lot for five years and has watched the growth first hand.

“If we actually had the parents on the west side dropping off in the parking lot over there [in the parent drop off section], we wouldn’t have this issue.”

If every parent dropped off their kids in the parent lot, then sure it would alleviate the traffic in the student lot. However, the parent lot would have more cars than it can handle.

“We have grown and people don’t like to hear this, but if every single parent went to student drop off and pick up we wouldn’t be able to function,” principal Dan Serrano explained.

Compared to when PHS first opened, with approximately 820 students, there are now over 3,400 students.This is a massive increase in students that require transportation.

If parent’s options are limited to only one section, inevitably Queen Creek Road would look like the I-10 in rush hour and it could take an hour for the area to empty safely.

Imagine the standstill that would result from all those parents lining up blocking the way in and out of the entire school zone.
Additionally, Serrano verified “There is a [signal] light that is supposed to come up here on 156th Street, which will really help [the traffic] in the mornings.”

This signal light will make taking a left out of the student drop off zone a feasible option with the constant flow of oncoming traffic from both sides of Queen Creek Road.

While the rush may be inconvenient, not every student minds parents using the student parking lot as a way to quickly drop off and pick up their kid.

Senior Jessica Sofka stated: “I don’t mind [parents lining up in student parking lot] the traffic isn’t that bad in the afternoons. I think they should be able to drop off their kids wherever they want to because that was me two years ago.”

In the afternoons by about 2:30, which is only about 15 minutes after school gets out, a majority of the traffic from the student parking lot has already dissipated.

So, with a growing and thriving student body in a limited space, people are going to have to learn to give it a bit of time and let the traffic work its way out.