Traffic created by the flow of students out of Daisy Elementary has been a source of concern and frustration for the school and parents for years. Now, nearly a decade after Hamilton County School Board representative Rhonda Thurman began to try to rectify the issue, an access road to the school is expected to be ready in time for the fall semester.
The new entrance, which will connect Sequoyah Road to the school, is already under construction.
Currently, the elementary school’s parent pickup route goes through the parking lot for Soddy-Daisy High School, which Thurman said has caused massive headaches for both SDHS students and Daisy parents.
“Basically, the parking up there was deadlocked,” she said. “Parents were getting to school an hour and a half early to get their children to be picked up. We’ve even seen parents bring laundry to fold while they waited.”
There were also safety concerns, said Daisy Elementary Principal Samantha Walter. Getting access to the school via Sequoyah Road eliminates the risk of buses or emergency vehicles not being able to reach the school during severe or inclement weather.
Hyatte Road, the main access point for both schools, has two steep hills.
“If that hill is blocked like it was when we got that snow two years back,” Walter said, referencing Hyatte Road, “then we’ve got a limited way out. Really, this will benefit both campuses.”
The new entrance will have three lanes in and two out. Thurman said the project also includes additional parking on Daisy Elementary’s campus, so when the school hosts events, guests won’t need to park at the high school.
The process to get the elementary school’s new entrance constructed has been a lengthy one, said Thurman. A host of agencies and government organizations needed to approve the project before ground could be broken. Thurman said the school district needed approval from Tennessee Valley Authority so the route could cross railroad tracks near the site, the EPA needed to assess soil samples due to an unforeseen watershed issue, and Hamilton County, the city of Soddy-Daisy and the school board were just a few of the governing bodies that had to sign off on the project.
The project is expected to cost roughly $554,000, said Thurman, who is “especially grateful” to former county commissioner Fred Skillern for earmarking roughly $100,000 of his own discretionary funding to go toward the project, as well as Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and state Rep. Richard Floyd for their assistance with the project.
Thurman said $250,000 of the project’s funds came from the sale of Ooltewah Elementary, and about $204,000 came from the county school system.
Walter said the school is preparing for some initial slowdown at the beginning of the school year while everyone adjusts to the new access point and traffic flow, but she is confident there will be drastic improvement within a few weeks.
“We’ve got a good vision about what it will look like, and it will be a good change for the parents,” she said.
Email Shane Foley at sfoley@timesfreepress.com.