Following two recent accidents in the Powell High School parking lot, district leaders are looking at redesigning the lot and adding parking bumpers to make it more safe.

In November, a PHS student hit a light pole in the busy parking lot around 7:30 a.m., before school started. As a teacher went to help the 17-year-old student, he also hit a light pole.

Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis referenced the double accident while talking with the school board about changes to the lot. Watching drivers access the parking lot before the start of the school day, Curtis said he was concerned .

“I wish I would have prepared for you a video of some of the students coming in and out of the parking lot,” Curtis told the board in late November. “Suffice to say, it made me nervous enough that I was like, ‘We have got to do something about this parking lot.’”

Under the proposed layout, cars will be parked facing east and west instead of the current north and south vehicle layout, said Rob McCray, the district’s support services coordinator. New parking bumpers also will be installed at the head of each parking space.

“So, that takes away those lanes for cutting through and speeding through the parking lot,” Curtis said.

The superintendent said the morning sunshine also creates issues in the parking lot, located on Powell’s east end.

“If you can’t see a light pole, how are you going to see a 14-year-old girl walking through the parking lot?” Curtis asked.

“Or an elementary school child going to get on the bus,” Trustee Kimberly Condie added.

Condie said she was taking her son to school that morning right after the accident occurred.  She described the sun as “brutal right then,” adding that the visor in her vehicle didn’t block the sun, so she had to hold her hand up.

“Part of the issue on that specific day [of the accident] ... was that there was a little bit more moisture in the air, so the sun was magnified,” Curtis said.

He talked with a school employee who said, “I was standing there, and when you looked that way, you couldn’t see a thing.”

Trustee Don Hansen remarked that no tickets were given out, and fellow board members noted it’s not a public road.

“I ought to keep my mouth shut, I should, but I’m going to say this: The teacher should have to take driver’s ed over again,” Hansen said. “Really.”

“He was watching the accident,” explained Lillian Brazelton, a fellow trustee.

Curtis said he met with several school administrators to look at changes, and Inberg-Miller Engineers did a proposal for a redesign. All told, the changes would cost around $5,000, he said.

The parking lot was recently chip-sealed and generally would receive a slurry coat a year or two after that, Curtis said. “The slurry coat would cover all of that in nice blacktop, and then would allow us to repaint the new lines on top of it and re-lay it out nicely.”

Administrators have considered traffic flow and snow removal when looking at changes.

“We don’t have to remove snow out of there a lot — the wind usually does that for us — but there are times when we have to remove it and need it to be fairly efficient,” Curtis said.

The concrete bases of the light poles will be painted to make them easier to see, he said. Board Chairman Greg Borcher suggested involving PHS art students in the painting.

“We were pretty impressed, by the way, with our light poles,” Curtis added. “It took a pretty good hit, and it didn’t budge.”

The parking lot work will probably take place this summer, McCray said.

“We have the layout — just waiting for time and nice weather,” he said.