Parking Complaint Elicits Apology From St. Ann's

Editor's Note: The following article was submitted by St. Ann School and the Church of St. Ann on Feb. 6 in response to an Emmaus Patch article about Monday night's Emmaus Borough Council meeting posted on Feb. 5. It has been edited for grammar and punctuation only. 

St. Ann School and the Church of St. Ann would like to apologize to their neighbors on South Sixth Street. “We were surprised to read the article in the Emmaus Patch since we were not directly approached by concerned residents,” explains Mrs. Diana Kile, Principal at St. Ann School. “Our children’s safety is of the utmost importance while they are in our care here at St. Ann’s.”

St. Ann School has enforced a drop off policy for more than six years, where all students are dropped off in the upper church parking lot, and sent in through a side door on Fairview Street. The cars enter and exit through the lower church parking lot entrance on South 5th Street, alleviating any car traffic on Fairview or South Sixth Streets in the morning, in order to allow room for the buses. The doors on Fairview Street are the only doors students may enter during drop off time in the morning.

The pick-up procedure is similar to the morning drop off procedure. Parents park in the upper church lot, and then proceed to the gym to pick up their child. Cars enter and exit through the lower parking lot on South 5th Street, again alleviating car traffic on Fairview and South Sixth Streets.

Our PREP (Parish Religious Education Program -- formerly CCD), which runs on a Wednesday night, is for children of the parish who do not attend St. Ann’s School. “We do have a procedure in place that specifically prohibits parking on South 6th and Fairview Streets, similar to the procedure that St. Ann School parents follow,” says Christine Kimock, Director of Religious Education for the Church of St. Ann. “We will remind our PREP parents of this procedure.”

Mrs. Kile has requested that staff refrain from parking on the south-bound side of South 6th Street during school hours. This will allow for residents to have more accessible parking in front of their homes.

Brief parking on South Sixth Street will continue for Preschool/Pre-kindergarten drop off/pick-up, which occurs several times each day, but only lasts approximately 10-15 minutes each time. Preschool students enter and exit the building through one of the doors on South Sixth Street.