Schools

How Do Kids Get To Montclair High School?

Take our poll and find out how other parents get their children back and forth to school.

 

Mary Emanuelli, a mother of four, said she transports her daughter to Montclair High School via carpool.

"What happens after school depends on whether she has practice or a club," she said. "Sometimes I pick her up or she walks or take the NJ Transit bus home."

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Another mother, Melissa Bigelow, said she, too, carpools as the high school is about two miles away and that school starts too early for her child to walk.

Still another mother said her son used to cycle but that his backpack grew too heavy so she began driving him there.

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The first day of school at Montclair High is less than a month away and many parents of freshmen are wondering how their sons and daughters will get there.

Earlier this year, Montclair High School student Lena Rawley wrote on Patch that some  by parents and a lucky few upperclassmen drive themselves, while others walk or take the bus to school.

"A majority of MHS students rely on their parents to get them to and from school," she said. "Many kids are dropped off in the morning and then picked up after school by a parent if they don’t have a sport or extracurricular activity."

If a student plans to drive themselves, he or she has to apply for a parking permit from the Montclair Parking Authority.

Montclair resident Nancy Toomey said her kids are now off to college but that, when they attended Montclair High School, cycling was not a "cool" option.

"Nobody, according to my kids, biked to school," she said. "They walked unless the weather made that tough and then I drove them."

Montclair mother of three, Emily Grand, said carpooling has worked most days—and so has the NJ Transit bus for getting her daughter back home.

If parents do plan to carpool and/or drop their kids off, ordinances adopted by the Montclair Township Council earlier this year changed the way people are able to park, stop, and turn on the streets surrounding the school.

A brief description of the ordinances is below:

No person shall park a vehicle on the South side of Chestnut Street between 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Monday thru Friday between Midland Ave and Park Street.

No person shall stop or stand a vehicle at any time on the North side of Chestnut Street between Midland Avenue and Park Street.  

No person, except the operator of a school or transit bus, shall make a turn of the kind designated below between 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. at any of the following locations:

Traveling North on Park Street at the intersection of Chestnut Street - all turns prohibited

Traveling South on Park Street at the intersection of Chestnut Street - all turns prohibited

Traveling East on Chestnut Street at the intersection of Park Street - all turns prohibited

Traveling West on Chestnut Street at the intersection of Park Street - all turns prohibited

Traveling North on Midland Avenue at the intersection of Chestnut Street - right turn prohibited

Traveling South on Midland Avenue at the intersection of Chestnut Street - left turn prohibited 

So how will your son or daughter get to Montclair High School this year? Let us know in the comments section below and take our poll.


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