LABELLE, Fla. — With back to school in full-swing, the Hendry County School District said traffic chaos is hitting hard, with parents navigating drop-off’s like a maze.
As Fox 4’s Hendry County Community Correspondent, I work in this area every day, so I talked to the district to find out why the traffic has gotten so bad, and what’s being done to help fix it.
Watch my report here...
Cars lined Cowboy Way Wednesday afternoon as parents waited to pick up their kids from LaBelle Middle. Aelyn Fonseca got in this line an hour early, hoping to save time.
“Traffic is insane. I didn’t get home until 5 p.m. on Monday. You know, it’s a big setback,” said Fonseca.
That’s just the afternoon though - the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office said mornings are worse. They say drivers have been using the wrong side of the road to bypass traffic, parking unsafely to drop-off kids, and there’s even been an accident.
LaBelle Middle’s Dean, Luis Marquez, said the school has made adjustments to help. “We’ve diverted them to Cedarwood to wrap around Raintree and come back on Cowboy Way, and that did make a difference,” said Marquez.
Superintendent of Schools, Mike Swindle, said Hendry County’s growing population is a big factor in the traffic.
“We have about 300 more students today than what we started school with last year, so we are a growing district still. As that happens, it puts more pressure on the schools, more pressure on the roadways, more pressure on the parents in the drop-off lines and pick-up lines, and as a result there’s more traffic to deal with,” Swindle explained.
Swindle also points to overcrowding at schools like LaBelle High, believing the new high school will help. “As we design the new school, as we design the roadways, the parking lots, and the pick-up areas, we’re trying to do that such that you don’t have traffic competing with each other for students trying to go where the parent drop-off is, or people having to park and walk through traffic to get to the school,” said Swindle.
Fortunately, Swindle said traffic usually eases after a few weeks once parents establish a routine.
