WHS parking, WLC construction
By Robert Cloud
Parents and students will find major changes when entering Waupaca Learning Center and parking at Waupaca High School this fall.
Construction is still ongoing at WLC, so students who are dropped off must enter through Door 9, the main entrance on the east side of the front of the building.
If parents walk their children from the car to the building, they should park in the parking lot and not in the pick-up lane to avoid traffic congestion and help ensure student safety.
Students will not be allowed to enter the building any earlier than 7:25 a.m. They will be allowed to wait in the commons, library, gym or primary playground until classes start at 7:50 a.m., according to a letter Principal John Erspamer sent to parents in July.
Students who arrive by bus will be dropped in the bus lane, but must use Door 1, located at the end of the west wing and normally used as the fourth-grade door.
At the end of the school day, all students will exit by the same door they entered.
Consulting engineer Bob Breest told the Waupaca School Board at its August meeting that construction at WLC will continue into January 2024.
A new, more secure entrance is being built as part of the 2022 referendum.
WHS parking
Most of the work on the high school’s new parking lot has been completed.
“Beginning on Friday, Aug. 25, all parking at WHS will be on the State Highway 22 side of the building,” District Administrator Ron Saari told the Waupaca County Post. “Students will enter this parking lot using the entrance they always have. Staff will use the entrance by the tennis courts.”
The east side parking lot will be extended toward State 22, toward the Wau-King Trail and includes a one way road for parents who drop off or pick up students.
Instead of parking at an angle, most student parking stalls will be parallel with the building and the majority of staff will park perpendicular to the building. This will allow for 30 to 40 additional parking spaces.
The parking lot nearest to Highway 22 is divided into two areas. Student parking is nearest Comet Field and staff parking is on the opposite side.
These two parking areas are divided by a raised sidewalk that forms a “T.” Parent pick-up and drop off will occur at the top of the “T” on the new one way road. Bus pick up and drop off will remain the same.
An elevated sidewalk will run south from the main entrance in between the student and staff parking lots.
It will connect in a T-intersection to another elevated sidewalk that runs along the south edge of the parking lot, where parents may pick up students.
There will be two lanes for traffic at the pick up area: one for stopping and one for passing.
“Parents enter the same entrance as before,” Saari said.
They will use the King Road entrance on the west side of the WHS campus, travel around the building, pick up and drop off students along the raised sidewalk on the south side of the parking lot.
They will then exit on the east side, going past the tennis courts, onto King Road.
Students will leave the parking lot on the west side of the building and exit via the west side onto King Road.
Buses will use the east entrance to the parking lot and pick up students on the south side of the building near the staff parking lot. They will turn around in the staff parking lot then use the east exit onto King Road.