Parents/Guardians,
Please take a moment to review our arrival and dismissal procedures. Following these procedures will help us to maintain an efficient and most importantly, safe arrival and dismissal.
Respectfully,
Panther Lake Elementary Administration
PANTHER LAKE ES
ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL PROCEDURES
School begins promptly at 8:45 with students seated in their classroom, unpacked and ready to learn. It is a parent responsibility to ensure their child arrives at school on time. Parents are not permitted to walk students to classrooms except on the first day of the school year.
At the start of the year, you will be asked to designate how your child is dismissed from school each day. Students should be identified as one of the following: walker, bike-rider, car-rider, Champions before/after school care. Dismissal begins at 3:00 (2:00 Wednesdays) and students will be dismissed according to the designation you have shared with your child’s teacher. Your child’s dismissal plan will not be changed unless a note is sent to school preferably 24 hours in advance. The note needs to indicate the dates and the dismissal changes will be taking place. (Emails will NOT be accepted.) Please do not call and leave a voicemail or use a class dojo message to change your child’s dismissal plan. Our teachers are instructing and may not receive a last-minute change in time. If you have an emergency, please call the front office immediately so that we can assist with your child’s dismissal.
- Walkers and bike riders are dismissed first and leave from two points of the school. For those families living east of the school, your children should be dismissed from the front of the school. Families may wait for their students near the bike rack. For those living west of the school and within the Lakeshore Preserve community, your children should be leaving campus using our pedestrian gate on Bismarck Palm Drive. We open this gate at approximately 2:50 and allow families to wait for their children at our PE area.
- Bike riders are dismissed from the same two access points as the walkers. If your child riders a bike or scooter to school, they are expected to wear a helmet. Bikes and scooters should be walked on the campus
Please note-if your child gets in a vehicle to return home, your child should be designated as a car rider and theyshould be picked up in our car loop. Please do not park in our bus loop or on a neighborhood street and walk to the school to pick up your child. Parents picking up their children in a car are expected to use the car loop. The car loop is the safest place to pick up your child
CAR LOOP PROCEDURES
Morning Drop-off: Enter the parking lot and continue to proceed back and forth through each row of the parking lot until you reach the front of the school. Parents should use the right-hand lane when lining up for morning drop off. As you approach the unloading area, please pull as far forward as possible before stopping and letting your child/ren out of the vehicle. The unloading/loading zone is under the awning. Student safety patrols and staff will available to help your child out of the car. Please do not allow your children out of the vehicle anywhere other than the front of the school and no sooner than 8:15 AM. Per state statute, the school will take responsibility of children no sooner than 30 minutes prior to the start of the school day.
Afternoon Pick-up: Car tags will be provided by the first day of school or at the time of registration. A car tag must be displayed in the front window of the car during dismissal. If the tag is not in the window, you will need to park and come into the building with your photo ID to pick up your child once the car line has cleared. The same driving pattern used during morning drop-off will remain in place for afternoon pick-up of students. However, in the afternoon, we ask that car use two lanes in the car loop (double stack). Prior to the loading zone, a member of our staff will call student names taking 10 cars from one lane at a time, alternating lanes every 10 cars. Please continue to pull as far forward as possible while waiting for your child in the loading zone. This sometimes means driving past your child. However, it allows us to load as many students as possible simultaneously and maintaining efficiency. Your child will follow your car and enter it once it has safely stopped.
In order to ensure the safety of students and staff, please refrain from using your cell phones once on campus and follow the instructions of staff members who are directing traffic in the parking lot.
In order to minimize your time in the car loop, we recommend entering the loop no sooner than 3:00 (2:00 on Wednesdays). Our car loop typically ends between 3:20 and 3:25.