— Julie Corral is worried about the safety of Irving Elementary School students when the bell rings at 3:30 p.m. every day.

“At (other schools), the pick-up of children after school is organized, but over here it’s chaos,” said Corral, the mother of an Irving student.

Irving is located at 1100 N. J St.

Corral says that illegal parking along K Street, where she lives, and J Street, on the other side of the school, are the cause of the safety hazards.

Principal David Shouse disputes the charge that students at his school are unsafe.

“We’re always concerned about the safety of the children first,” Shouse said. “We’ve never had an accident. We require kindergarten and first-grade parents to pick up their children at the classroom.

“We’ve had one complaint in three years.”

Changes in parental attitudes and practices about how their children get to and from school have contributed to the bottlenecks along the narrow streets surrounding Irving.

“This school was built as a neighborhood school,” Shouse said. “Now we have 200 cars converging in this one neighborhood after school.”

Irving’s school building is bounded on the north by Gibson Street, on the east by K Street, and on the west by J Street.

Jefferson Street is south of the block where the playground and gymnasium are located. The gym was built some years after the school building that houses the classrooms and offices.

The school building is in a block across Kingston Street to the north of the gym. A raised concrete sidewalk, covered with a metal awning, crosses Kingston to connect the school and the gym. The sidewalk is a solid structure three feet high, making the passage of vehicular traffic impossible.

“If parents could circle around the school on Kingston, that would be perfect,” Shouse said. “We’re more than willing to make changes.”

Shouse said parents waiting for their children sometimes park in No Parking zones on J and K streets.

“The signs say ‘Do not park,’ but people park there anyway,” Shouse said. “Campus police are working with us. They have the authority to enforce traffic laws.”

Officers were at the school Wednesday afternoon asking cars in No Parking zones to move.

Shouse said the school’s sixth-grade students have been receiving safety patrol training. The student safety patrol guards will be on duty when classes resume after the Labor Day holiday.

“As soon as the safety patrol starts next week, I’ll feel better,” Shouse told one parent.

Chantal Titley was waiting for her child Wednesday before the 3:30 bell. She praised the procedures followed at Irving for the dismissal of students.

“When the bell rings, the kids walk on the sidewalk,” Titley said. “Teachers are out on all sides of the building. They make sure the students stay on the sidewalk. Most parents get out of their cars to meet their children.

“The street is kind of narrow, but everything moves pretty smoothly.”

Reach Kirk Kramer at 684-2901 or kkramer@muskogeephoenix.com.