The district has closed the front parking lot at BVNW today to replace speed bumps that brought about concern of damage to cars. As a part of the new pavement construction opened on Monday morning, the speed bumps aimed to control traffic speed in the new drop-off and pick-up loops. Even though the speed bumps followed national paving guidelines, Deputy Superintendent Al Hanna said driving on them was very abrupt and people became concerned.

“As some of the staff members and other people were driving, it just felt like [the speed bumps] were a potential concern and something we should think about,” Hanna said. “As we talked it through yesterday afternoon, we felt since we had the chance now, we might as well go ahead and make some modifications before school starts so it won’t be a worry for us during the school year.”

Hanna said the modified speed bumps should be finished by the end of today, but the parking lot will still stay closed overnight to get everything set in. The entire lot will be open for use tomorrow morning for the first full day of school.

“It’s kind of a fine line, because the purpose of a speed bump is to slow people down, but you don’t want to do it to the point where people are worried that if they are going too fast, there will be damage to the car,” Hanna said. “The speed bumps will become more gradual, but we think they’ll still be effective at slowing traffic down and providing a safe situation.”