SARTELL -- There is a slight change to the drop-off route for families at Pine Meadow Elementary school in Sartell.

On Thursday, the school and city installed several concrete barriers, blocking left turns into the school parking lot from Fifth Street North.

Pine Meadow Elementary Principal Sara Nelson says the change was needed as their was concern, between the school and city, with the amount of congestion along Pinecone Road during school drop-off times.

Traffic during morning drop-off was backed up to city hall on most mornings. Everyone is trying to get where they need to be in the morning and there was safety concerns around that making sure our students get dropped off without any accidents. Which led us to this conversation with the city about how we can better insure the safety of our kids.

Instead of turning left from Fifth Street into the parking lot, the new route leads drivers to the end of Fifth Street, make a U-turn before finally making a right turn into the parking lot.

Nelson says while this may not be a permanent solution, it's a step in the right direction.

We will continue to work with the city and the police department, to make sure the safety of our kids is at the top. We will monitor and evaluate our traffic pattern as it is now and if we feel we need to adjust things in the future we will.

Nelson says while it's still early, the transition has gone smoothly.

Pine Meadow Elementary currently has 700 students in grades K-4th. Those numbers will be roughly the same when the school district reorganizes this fall and Pine Meadow houses just 1st and 2nd grade students.

Student drop-off time at the school is from 7:45 a.m. to 8:05 a.m.

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