SCHOOL SAFETY AND TRANSPORTATION

School Visitation

To visit any of our instructional programs or to set up conferences, please phone our main office at 485-8250 and leave a message for your child's teacher or team leader. Your message will be given to them. You can e-mail your child's teacher. E-mail addresses are listed on the "Staff" page of this Web site.

For safety and security, we are asking all visitors (anyone who is not a Fern Creek Elementary student or paid staff) to enter through the front door and sign in and out at the welcome center with each visit. At all times, if you are in the building, you must wear a name tag. Remember the only door open to visitors is the front door, our main building entrance. Volunteers also enter through the front entrance, sign in, wear a name tag, and go to their appropriate area of work.

Playground Safety Policy

During school hours, the Fern Creek Elementary School playground is to be used exclusively by students and staff for supervised P.E. activities. We ask that all parents and visitors who wish to talk to or pick up a student who is on the playground, please check in at the welcome center in the lobby. The student will be called in to meet with or go home (as appropriate, safe, and legal) at that time. At no time will parents or visitors be allowed to pick students up at the playground and leave from that location.

Transportation

Buses
For help in finding a bus for your student to ride to and from school, use this link: http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/Departments/BusRoute.html

Buses will arrive and dismiss in the front circle. There will be staff assigned to greet and assist the students each morning. Bus riders are dismissed beginning at 3:47 p.m. Staff will help students board the buses to go home. It is the responsibility of the parents to supervise at the bus stops in the mornings and afternoons.

The safety of children while riding the bus is very important to us. Each year, specific bus rules are sent home to be read by the family together. With the bus rules will be an attached form to sign (stating you have received the rules) and to return to our School/Home Coordinator or the bus driver. Some of the key rules will include:

• Sitting in their assigned seat according to the bus drivers seating chart
• Not standing while bus in motion
• Absolutely no fighting
• No eating or drinking on the bus
• No toys or valuables on the bus unless the teacher, bus coordinator, and bus driver have made a "special exception" (i.e. a school sponsored class party, a class "show and tell", etc.)

If at any time you are concerned about your student's bus, please contact our School/Home Coordinator, Leigh Stanley, at 485-8250 or the Bus Compound at 485-6690.

Car Riders:
Arrival Car riders should arrive between 8:30 and 8:55 a.m. in the morning. They will enter the building through the side doors facing the new library section of the building. To arrive at these doors it is necessary to drive around the back of our building. Students are to be dropped off between the two loading and unloading signs. Staff will be there until 8:55 a.m. to assist the students as they enter the building. At 8:55 a.m., the side doors will close and car riders will need to enter through the front door of the building. Parents will need to park their cars in one of the three large lots and enter through the front doors and sign their child in with the office personnel at the Welcome Center. Students are encouraged to be in their classroom by 9 a.m. to hear announcements and to begin preparing for instruction that starts at 9:05 a.m.

Drivers are asked to stay in their cars and be alert, as the line is constantly moving. Do not leave your car unattended with the motor running. Not only is it a traffic violation, but it is especially unsafe in an area so accessible to inquisitive children. When purses or other valuables are left unguarded, compounded with a running car, it can be especially tempting. If you need to come inside the building, park you car in one of the three parking lots, enter through the front doors, and sign in at the office Welcome Center in the lobby.

The speed limit on school property is 10 mph. Drivers can be ticketed for exceeding the 10 mph. speed limit.

Before and after school, please do not let your children out of your car by the front bus circle, the flagpole, playgound, or where signs do not designate loading or unloading zone.

Dismissal Car riders will be dismissed at approximately 3:46 - 3:49 p.m., through the side doors where they entered that morning. The procedures for dismissal are similar to those for arrival. Staff assists the students. All families will be given a number to be displayed on the rearview mirror in their car. Students will remain in the building until their car number is called. For safety reasons, the family should give the number only to designated car drivers who are to pick up their child. Each family will complete a car rider form to list the appropriate pick up drivers for the student. Students will only be allowed to be picked up by persons listed on the car rider form, who are in the designated, assigned numbered car. If you do not have your number on the rearview mirror or if the pick up driver is not on the form of a numbered car, you will have to park, go into the Welcome Center in the lobby, show your ID, and have you child called to the office to go. Remember to keep the line moving quickly, display your family number on the rearview mirror, and make sure your children know their car number. Students must be picked up by 4:10 p.m. In cases where there is an emergency, please be sure to phone the school as soon as possible and leave a specific message as to the nature of the emergency and your plans for your child's ride home. There will be no meeting at the doors.

Walkers
Arrival Students walking to school should arrive between 8:30 a.m. and 8:55 a.m. They will enter the building through the front doors, the main building entrance.

Dismissal Walkers will be dismissed at approximately 3:49 p.m. They will be encouraged by staff to stay on the sidewalks and return home in a timely and responsible manner.

Bicycles
No bicycles please. We have no way to protect or ensure them against damage or theft.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Now Available for Parents, an on-line resource in the areas of alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and violence prevention.
CLICK HERE and you will be taken to the JCPS Forms page. Use the pull-down menu and click on Safe & Drug-Free Schools. This will take you to a page where you will have access to a number of informative brochures.