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August 7, 2026
Dear MacLaren Community,
Here are some reminders regarding our daily after-school pick-up system (the colored placard system). New families will find this particularly helpful, but we hope it provides a good refresher on both the "why" and "how" of our traffic procedures.
Here are some of the reasons why we use this pick-up system:
- Our campus was designed as a neighborhood middle school. Today, as a K-12 school, we have nearly 1,000 students and 180 faculty and staff coming to campus each day, and this creates unique challenges:
- We have a large number of student drivers who need parking.
- A growing student body has also meant a growing number of faculty and staff who need to park in the south lot.
- We draw students from neighborhoods all over Colorado Springs; while we have some walkers and bikers, these are a small minority.
- All of this results in a major feat of coordination each day as we work to reunite almost 1,000 students with their families.
- To make this as efficient and smooth as possible, we need to avoid cars waiting in the pickup line, parking in the fire lane, and long lines building on Sawyer and Murray. We also want to ensure safety in the parking lot and neighborhood.
The placard system has significantly improved the pick-up experience and has led to more order, safety, and civility in the parking lot and pick-up lane, though we know it can also take some getting used to.
Here are the windows for pick-up for our three groups: Lower School-only families and carpools, combined Lower School and Upper School families and carpools, and Upper School-only families and carpools:
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