GFA Staggers Pickup Times, Seeking to Limit Crowds
by Jack Pegler, ’24
Along with the recent scheduling changes in the Upper School, the GFA community has seen several changes being made to the pickup and drop off system at school.
Now that school ends at 2 p.m., a full half hour earlier for the Upper School, students who cannot drive themselves are now required to leave before 2:15 or after 3 p.m. This change was made so that both the Middle and Lower School students could have a designated time to be picked up.
“Obviously, this is an unusual year; we would never make a [scheduling] change mid-year,” Assistant Head of Upper School Justine Fellows said. “I have to say, this year, with all the schedules, people have been really nice and good about following the guidelines.”
As for drop off in the morning, all students are free to arrive on campus between 8 a.m. and 8:15.
While Fellows said that parents’ not being able to enter school was one of the many negative results of COVID-19, a positive result of the pandemic is that there are currently no parking issues at school.
Fellows added that the changes to scheduling, pickup and drop off have seen mainly positive results, with no obvious issues that have occurred as a result of these significant changes.
“We’re having to adjust based on what’s going on in the world,” Fellows said. “It's working really well.”