New Afternoon Traffic Procedures start Monday (13 March)

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    Dear SSIS Parents and Guardians –

    As Saigon South International School has grown, so have the challenges of providing for the safety of our community during drop off times in the morning and pick up times in the afternoon. While we are pleased with the way over 1,000 students arrive each the morning by foot, bike, bus, and car, we have concerns about their departures in the afternoons. On Monday, 13 March 2017 we are putting in place some new procedures which are intended to improve student safety in the afternoons. We ask for our community’s support.

    Our goals are:

    1. To provide greater safety for our community members during the busy afternoon hours of 3:00 – 4:30 pm.
    2. To streamline procedures to reduce wait times and congestion in the parking areas.

    Starting on Monday afternoon, 13 March 2017, the following rules will be in effect (in addition to other traffic rules on campus):

    1. Drivers must stay in their vehicles.  No driver (parent or family-employed driver) will be allowed to leave his or her vehicle while the car is in the car lanes in front of the School.
    2. Any parent or driver who needs to exit the vehicle must park in the parking lot or park off campus and walk in.
    3. Drivers in the pick-up lanes in front of the School must leave their vehicle engines running and pull as far ahead in the line as possible. That means that when one car leaves, all cars behind that car must pull ahead in line.
    4. Cars must form only one lane in front of the School.  Cars are not allowed to form two lanes.
    5. All students must enter into the passenger side of their car directly from the school walkway.

    We trust that each of our families will share these new procedures with any drivers they employ. On Friday, 10 March 2017, we will distribute cards in Vietnamese to drivers on campus, advising them of the new rules starting the following week.

    At the start of the next school year, we will once again begin enforcing our traditional practice of issuing required school stickers to all cars which drop off or pick up students from campus. While we are all fortunate to live in a safe country like Vietnam, and while SSIS cannot enforce traffic regulations outside our gates, we believe we can do more to improve safety on campus and we appreciate your cooperation.

    Sincerely yours,

    Mark Iver Sylte, Head of School