On the busy corner of Cascade Road and Hall Street, a cleared area of land is awaiting construction. In the upcoming months, a new daycare facility will plant its roots at the already bustling intersection. With the creation of the daycare, high school students and staff are in fear that their morning routines are about to be filled with a major inconvenience: traffic. 

Before school begins at 7:45 in the morning, anyone in commute on the streets of Cascade, Spaulding, and Hall can see the obvious buildup of traffic that begins around 7:15. With students and staff coming in from all different directions, the intersection of Hall and Cascade is a vital and unavoidable portion of the commute to work or school. 

The formation of the new daycare facility has many students and staff upset. As most people have to leave their homes very early to make it to the school on time, they are in fear that the parents dropping off their children will only lead to more traffic and accidents on the corner. 

“I think it is an extremely bad idea to build the daycare there,” Spanish teacher Carlos Silvestre said. “There are days when the traffic jam goes all the way to Hall, and that is without the building being there. I can only imagine how crazy it will get when you have parents dropping off their kids there at the same time as people are trying to pull onto Hall Street.” 

Anyone who has ever been at the intersection has witnessed the fast-paced flow of traffic. With cars turning in and out from many directions, the hecticness of the area only is worsened in the morning with the commute to school. Establishing yet another facility in which people require a car to reach is expected to increase the chaotic traffic in an already hustling area. 

“In the morning, there is crazy traffic coming down from Cascade, and many times you can only get five cars to turn, or maybe even less, every time the arrow turns green,” Silvestre said. “Now you have other people coming down from both sides to stop at the daycare, so I think it is a bad idea that is going to create a crazy pandemonium in the morning.” 

Although the school pushed back its start time by five minutes this year, the construction of the daycare could cause those trying to reach the high school to have to leave five minutes earlier than they have been since August. With the high potential of backups and congestion, those who must pass through Cascade and Hall may need to allot a few more minutes of time in their morning to get through the stockpile of traffic. 

“People will have to leave earlier if we don’t want to see an increase in tardies,” Silvestre said. “But I don’t think that is going to be the case. Most people just don’t want to leave any earlier than they already have to.”

Although the formation of the daycare is expected to cause major inconveniences for those traveling to the high school, there isn’t much that can be done to prevent the facility from taking root. 

The area on the corner has no affiliation to the high school itself, so what can and can not be done with the land does not reside in the hands of any powerful school figures. 

“That area is just a zoned commercial area,” Officer Jim Svoboda said. “So the school can’t do a whole lot about it.”

Although the consequences of the establishment of the facility are mostly expected to be negative in terms of traffic and commute, the after school traffic beginning around 2:45 is not expected to be affected by the construction of the new building. 

“At the end of the school day we are out of here at 2:45, but generally people don’t get out of work until 4 or 5 o’clock at night,” Svoboda said. “We are not going to see the traffic after school because a majority of the students will already be gone from the school property, so there shouldn’t be an issue—especially in the evening.”

As for students, waking up and getting to school by 7:45 is already a difficult task for many. Very late nights are full of homework and studying rather than rest and sleep. Having to get up even earlier is expected to be frowned upon by a majority of students who reach the school via Cascade Road. 

“I am annoyed because it is already super crowded on Hall Street,” junior Josh Philip said. “Even right now, it takes forever to go anywhere, but with the daycare increasing the traffic, it will take even longer to get where you are going.”

Some staff and students are thinking ahead to the days soon to be filled with traffic and even potential fender-benders at the intersection. Teachers including Silvestre are planning on potentially altering their routes to work in order to arrive at an appropriate time each day. 

“I am now thinking that I should just go down Ada Drive and come up by the middle school to avoid the traffic,” Silvestre said. “Other people might start doing that too, so it is not like that is going to be my exclusive route.”

Although drivers are expecting to see an increase in the chaos of the early morning commute, there isn’t much that can be done to help the situation. 

The power does not lie in the hands of the school, so the establishment of the facility is simply going to be an inconvenience that students and staff will have to learn to adapt to. 

“I bet they will try to put in a lane for the daycare to try and ease congestion, but who knows,” Silvestre said. “There could be a big problem still because there is simply too much traffic coming to the same spot at the same time.”