Traffic jams up Mars’ first day of school
Smiles and greetings withstood the rain and heavy traffic along Route 228 on Mars Area School District’s first day.
Mars Area High School, which sits along Route 228, is welcoming students back to its campus Thursday, Aug. 21 while crews still work on widening the road.
A main entrance to the parking lot right by the tennis courts has been closed off due to the construction, while excavators and construction workers continued their mission through the rain. Meanwhile, school buses and parents dropping off their children came through the entrance on the other end of the school near the cafeteria and auditorium, and sat in standstill traffic that at times wrapped around the building.
Though the school day officially started at 7:35 a.m., some buses were not dropping off their students until 7:40.
“That’s a beginning of the year thing, the first couple days are going to be like this. And we sent a communication out to parents yesterday just to say ‘hey, please be patient,’ while the busses run all of the routes,” Jeff James, Mars’ safety and security director, said.
Students smiled, greeted their friends and entered the school building through lines of metal detectors while the school buses started drop off around 7:15 and went through their home room.
As cars left the school after dropping off students, traffic was backed up from Mars all the way to Seven Fields.
“The construction has made a couple of challenges with getting people through the entrances. All of the kids that park over by the tennis courts are going to eventually come through a closed entrance, but right now everybody’s coming through what we have,” James said.
Christina Smith, Mars’ director of transportation, said it can be normal for some delays the very first day of school, as bus drivers, parents and the school’s transportation department are trying to figure out where exactly to go and the most effective ways for getting students to school.
Despite any bus delays, Smith thought the process went smoothly Thursday.
“Generally, the first day you’re still working out some things you may not have known going into the year, with traffic patterns and everything, getting used to it is gonna take a couple days,” Smith said. “The first couple days are like trying to get all those kinks worked out, parents figuring out where to drop off, it’s a learning process especially with the entrances and exits that are closed.
“Next week should go smoother, but I feel this morning went beautifully given all of those things.”
With construction ongoing, Smith said the district is making sure it’s looking at safety aspects like road crossing. She said her department has spent months planning bus routes.
“My routing and process for starting a new school year starts in March,” Smith said. “We figure out our database in March, start routing kids, see where kids are living and going because load counts change. As a district we roll out our student info system in late June, early July so parents can eventually look at the routes.”
Prior to Mars’ first day of school, the district gave a reminder at its school board meeting to be aware of the traffic patterns created by the construction. In addition to the high school’s vehicle access being limited, the middle school also has an entrance, along Three Degree Road, closed due to construction.
PennDOT estimates the Route 228 widening project will be completed by November 2026.
“When this is done, this is going to be great. It’s going to be much more convenient, and people won’t be getting stuck behind a long, single line of vehicles,” James said.
