Preparing as a community for kids returning to school

When will school start in your community?

Aside from Jefferson Union High — serving Daly City, Pacifica, Brisbane and Colma — which started school this past week on Aug. 7, there is a high concentration of public schools kicking off the academic year on Wednesday, Aug. 14. Because it’s a Wednesday, it will likely also be a minimum day, which means 12:30 p.m. within a quarter mile of any of your local public school will be busy with pickups and kids biking home or to their local library.

Remaining start dates for our county’s public school districts:

Aug. 14: Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, Pacifica, Ravenswood City Elementary, Redwood City Elementary, San Mateo Community Collect District, San Mateo Union High School District, San Mateo-Foster City, Sequoia Union High School District

Aug. 15: Bayshore Elementary, Cabrillo Unified, La Honda-Pescadero Unified, Millbrae, South San Francisco Unified

Aug. 21: Burlingame Elementary, Portola Valley Elementary, San Carlos Elementary, Woodside Elementary

Aug. 22: Brisbane Elementary, Menlo Park City Elementary, San Bruno Park Elementary

Aug. 26: Hillsborough City

Your local morning commute will be much busier

If you got used to the quiet summer streets between 7:50-8:30 a.m. on the weekdays, these next few weeks are going to be prime for frustrating mornings and late arrivals. Plan for an extra 10-15 minutes of local commute time, especially if you live nearby one of your public schools.

It’s not uncommon for there to be crossing guards helping timid students get to their destinations safely, or for school buses to be loading and unloading nearby.

More children will be out and about at bell

For most schools, the last bell is sometime between 2:45-3:15 p.m. except on Wednesdays where most public schools end between noon and 12:30 p.m. Some schools also have half-day Kindergarten programs, so expect pickup lines to back up around noon. Expect to stop more at midstreet crosswalks. Expect to give up those rolling stops California drivers are so famous for.

There will be more bicyclists on the road

True across the county, but this comment is more specific to the city of San Mateo; thanks to the great work of Heather Wolnick, Allison MacQueen Felder and the Move San Mateo volunteer team, lots of middle schoolers will be riding their bikes to school. If you live on the route to Abbot, Borel, Bayside, Bowditch, North Shoreview or Parkside, expect more bicyclists carrying heavy backpacks.

I am hopeful that our incoming sixth grader will be able to ride his bike to and from school most days. But in practicing the 1-mile bike ride with our son, we’ve unfortunately experienced being honked at while riding on “share the road” streets or for waiting to use the crosswalk in busy intersections and drivers not looking before turning into us and almost hitting us. While I remain confident that we will get there, our success also depends on the community actually sharing the road with bicyclists.

For parents: Be good neighbors and practice safe driving also. This one is important for parents dropping off and picking up their kids.

If you’re planning on parking, please don’t block driveways or park in the red anywhere. Especially don’t park in teacher parking spaces, as I have seen plenty of parents’ cars being fully blocked because the teacher who was supposed to park there did and had to get into their classroom to start the day.

If you’re using the car drop-off or pickup line, your school will have likely sent you instructions for how to approach the school. In driving around the community myself around these times, I’ve seen so many parents make illegal U-turns unsafely, make illegal left turns when there are “no left turn” signs right in front of them, and not looking before turning and almost hitting a bicycle or pedestrian.

Have extra patience with one another for the remainder of August. It takes some time for everyone to get into the habit of a new schedule.

Sending well wishes to all of San Mateo County’s students for an exciting kickoff to the 2024-25 academic school year!

Annie Tsai is chief operating officer at Interact (tryinteract.com), early stage investor and advisor with The House Fund (thehouse.fund), and a member of the San Mateo County Housing and Community Development Committee. Find Annie on Twitter @meannie.