Good evening Utica Academy of Science Elementary School families,
As you are all aware, we are experiencing problems with Durham Bus Services. Many parents came to pick up their students today in order to get around late buses. However, due to the number of parents who came to pick up their students we had a major delay and for that we greatly apologize. Thank you so much for your patience today, we truly appreciate it.
We are currently working to resolve the bus issues so that we do not need as many parent pick ups in the future. In the meantime, we will change parent pick up procedures to reduce the number of parents coming at once.
All K-2 families who are picking up their students will come between 2:45 pm to 3:15 pm. All Kindergarten - 2nd grade students will wait in the cafeteria. The entire back parking lot will be clear. Parents can park in the back, come inside the cafeteria with a mask on, and sign out their students with the classroom teacher. Please be sure to tell the teachers at least 1 hour in advance if you are picking up your child. Many parents came looking for their students at the parent pick-up location, but the teachers were unaware which caused additional delays.
All 3-6 families who are picking up their student will come between 3:15 pm-3:45 pm. They also will be in the cafeteria and they will follow the same procedures as K-2, just at a different time.
If you have a child in K-2 and an older sibling in 3-6, please get both of your children during the first round from 2:45-3:15 pm. If you have a student in 7-8 as well, please reach out to their advisory teacher so that they are aware you are picking up early if you would like to get your K-8 students at the same time. Otherwise, 7-8 can be picked up at the normal time, which is 4 pm.
Again, we apologize for the delay. We were not expecting as many parent pick ups today. Splitting the times will decrease the number of parent pick ups by half. Please note, that while we are experiencing bus issues and working around schedule changes, we will likely continue to experience some delays with parent pick up. We will continue to work on and revise parent pick up to make it as smooth and quick as possible for families and students while there are bus issues. When the bus schedule is resolved, we will revise the pick up schedule, as well.
Again, we apologize for the delays and are working around the clock with different bus companies to resolve the issue. Thank you in advance.
Utica Academy of Science Administration
