Arriving at School in the Post-Pulaski Skyway Closure Era

In regard to students being late to school we have ended the practice of students receiving detentions for arriving to school late over several days.  We have seen a tremendous decrease in the amount of students being late for school and believe that this disciplinary approach to students being late for school is no longer necessary.

When we return to school on April 21st we all may face a new challenge of increased traffic due to the closure of the Pulaski Skyway.  We may not know the full effects of the closure until Tuesday, April 22nd when Jersey City Public Schools return from their spring break.  At LCCS we want to be as flexible as possible in regard to how new traffic patterns may impact all of our families' morning routines and  routes to school.  We encourage everyone to start their day a bit earlier in order to deal with increased traffic on the roads in the early days of the closure.  We hope that our students will be at school by 8:20 but we also understand that the changes in traffic patterns on the Pulaski will impact most Learning Community families.   At the same time we realize that accidents elsewhere may cause a child to be ten or fifteen minutes late to school due to increased street traffic throughout Jersey City.We are instituting a grace period where we will not mark students late until 9:00 am through Friday, May 3rd to address these traffic changes.  

If you drop your child off at school in the morning on Kennedy please only stop briefly and do not park your car there for any extended period of time.  When picking up a child after school from 5:30 on please do not park on Kennedy as well.  By complying with these simple requests space is created for our school buses to safely and quickly pick up and drop off students.  This also may be a time to consider car pooling with other LCCS families.  If you are currently not part of a car pool but would be interested in joining one please contact Charlotte Kreutz in the main office.  We will not be able to actually set up any car pools but we can certainly suggest some families that live nearby that you may wish to contact in order to set one up or join an existing one.

As you notice issues with traffic flow throughout Jersey City please feel free to contact Jersey City's Resident Response Center at 201-547-4900.  The Response Center will take calls from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Let's hope that through getting up a bit earlier and more commuters embracing mass transit options the closure will have a minimal effect on how our school day begins.