We do not have buses at American Academy (see below) and students attend American Academy from all over Douglas County! So our carpool drop-off and pick-up procedure is a big part of the school day. Unless your student walks to school, we require that all parents go through the morning carpool drop-off and afternoon pick-up procedure at each of our three campuses.
American Academy parents must use the School Dismissal Manager online and mobile app to communicate with the school and manage student dismissals. Please read more about how this works on our School Dismissal Manager web page.
Please refer to the American Academy Carpool Policy and the campus carpool maps to see how traffic flow works at each campus.
Safety and Efficiency
American Academy has designed the traffic flow of our carpool drop-off and pick-up process at each campus with the careful help of professionals, and with the primary goals of safetyand efficiency. Additionally, we employ full-time instructional assistants who work as carpool attendants on either end of the school day. We also have carpool procedures and rules in place for our parents and students to follow, as outlined in our Carpool Policy.
We use this carpool drop-off and pick-up as our official school process for managing the arrival and dismissal of around 900 students every day of the school year.Moving 900 students in and out of the campus buildings (while also making sure they get to the correct cars) takes some time. During the first few weeks of school at each of our campuses, the carpool process is inherently slower; this feature self-corrects within the first month, due to the following:
More parents begin to carpool with other families, reducing the number of cars in line.
New parents and students get used to and are following the process and the rules.
Extracurricular activities begin during the second week of school and the pick-up times stagger naturally at the end of the day.
After the first few weeks of the school year, this process typically only takes about 30-35 minutes, assuming good weather.
For many years, American Academy has partnered with SchoolPool (Way To Go) carpooling service. We are still working with them for the 2021-2022 school year, and will be using an OPT-IN format to be included in this service. Here is all the info to get signed up today!
For more information, visit our SchoolPool page on the website.
Why No Buses?
Per our charter agreement, American Academy, like other district charter public schools, does not have access to Douglas County School District (DCSD) busing. However, the district and the school recently worked together to pilot a DCSD busing program for our American Academy parents. In order to make that program financially viable, however, a certain number of participants was required. Unfortunately, the level of interest among American Academy parents was too low to support the program and it was discontinued. American Academy has also explored private busing or purchasing our own buses; however, both options are prohibitively expensive.
Walking
Walking to and from school may be a good option for your student and your family. Please read more about it on our About Walkers web page.