By Dale Cole
Clay County Schools Superintendent
This summer Clay County Schools was able to demolish the old elementary school building on our campus through funding partnerships with the Clay County Commissioners and the N.C. Education Lottery Grant. This also allowed us to re-grade and asphalt our bus parking lot and the adjacent property available after the building demolition. This project will fix the crumbling bus lot that was damaging our buses on a regular basis while also providing a new staff parking lot for our elementary school teachers that was desperately needed. We were able to break ground on this project in early July. Since that time, it has rained almost every day and the entire paving crew contracted COVID-19. As a result, the bus parking lot re-paving is behind schedule and will not be ready for use until two to three weeks after students return to school.
This means that CCS will have to implement an alternative traffic pattern beginning Monday, Aug, 23 until the new bus lot is finished. It is critical that all our parents and other adults who pick up or drop off students follow this traffic pattern every day. If you have any questions about where you should drive after reading this article and looking at the map, contact your principal.
Map legend:
Orange: All buses will leave the bus garage at approximately 2:45 p.m. and drive up Anderson Street to Hayesville Primary School to complete pickups. HPS will release students at 2:50 p.m.. All buses will leave HPS at 2:50, make a right turn on Anderson Street, pass the main entrance to HPS and turn right onto Yellow Jacket Drive. The buses will line up nose to tail on Yellow Jacket Drive from the yellow crosswalk sign in front of the district office back down the hill to Hayesville High School. This means that afternoon pickups for HMS will have to be moved to the traffic circle in front of HMS.
Red: All HMS drop offs in the mornings and pick ups in the afternoon should follow the same route. Traffic entering the roundabout should exit the circle on Business 64 towards Hayesville and then make a right turn by the bus garage to drive up the hill to the HMS main entrance. Parents should make their drop off/pick up in a counterclockwise circle, exit the parking lot by taking a right and drive back down the hill towards the bus garage. This will free up Yellow Jacket Drive and the traffic roundabout so that buses can exit at approximately 3:10 p.m.
Yellow: Yellow signifies the route for HHS parents who are picking up or dropping off high school students. These parents should enter Yellow Jacket Drive from Myer’s Chapel Church Road, drive up Yellow Jacket Drive, enter the HHS gym parking lot to the right and pick up their student from gym door sidewalk.
We apologize for this inconvenience and ask that everyone have patience during the first two weeks of school. Once the bus lot is complete, we will notify the public of a change back to the normal traffic pattern. Thank you for your help.
Dale Cole is the Superintendent of Clay County Schools.