SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – With the first day of school on Monday, August 24, leadership at St. Theresa Church on Lyons Avenue is raising concerns about how South Tahoe Middle School (STMS) parents drop off their students and pick them up.
In recent years, parents have been opting to pick their students up in the church’s parking lot, often running across the street where there is no crosswalk.
Danette A. Winslow, director of Religious Education at the church, said she has noticed changes in the process over the last few years, even with school enrollment dropping. Parents will send LakeLink to pick kids up in front of her office or Grace Hall, or they will park along Lyons Avenue or in the church parking lot to wait for their students. Winslow said it is “total chaos” on Mondays when those who eat at Bread & Broth start lining up at Grace Hall at 2 p.m., just before school is out.
She says kids are hanging out in front of the church, Grace Hall, the steps of the parish office, or in front of Father Joseph’s parking garage after running across the street from the school.
STMS has a new parking lot and drop off/pick up plan in place for moving cars through the new area. Winslow is concerned many more parents will start to arrange to get their kids on Lyons Avenue and at the church, and she wants to bring awareness to the situation before school starts.
Winslow said she has reached out to the school and the South Lake Tahoe Police Department in an effort to curb the chaos. She also talked to LakeLink, and they would pull into the school just as she hopes parents use the planned route.