District 220 Addresses Barrington High School Traffic Issues

Miss Part One? Read about the traffic issues surrounding the school district.

Traffic concerns surrounding the and are very real, but perhaps the biggest traffic issues deal with .

A large part of the problem is the sheer size of the high school. With more than 3,000 students, 200 staff members, and various other people coming and going from the school about the same time each weekday, traffic is bound to get tied up.

“When we have three or four commuter trains coming through, and you also have some two-lane roads, the variety of circumstances mean you have a lot of traffic in one place early in the morning,” Superintendent Dr. Tom Leonard said.

Vehicle traffic isn’t the only problem. Although is located along busy Lake Cook and Hart roads, there are a fair number of walkers who need to get to school on time as well.

“They are walking in the morning when it’s still dark out. There’s a significant number of kids walking on a narrow road and it’s not very easy by the CN tracks,” Leonard said, referring to the Canadian National Railway.

These issues aren’t unique to the . Traffic problems at are very similar to other high schools nearby.

“Drive by Stevenson, Highland Park, Lake Zurich high schools in the morning and you’ll see almost an identical situation,” Leonard said.

The traffic problems are real in town, and they leave many wondering what is being done to solve them.

“There are some ideas that we are having conversations about. A lot of it would require some significant facility changes, or the ability to expand schools which is not something anyone is crazy about in any of these neighborhoods,” Leonard said. “We watch it and we try our best to navigate the traffic as best we can. We’ve made changes at Prairie, the high school, and Lines as far as rerouting the traffic. Changes are getting in place for Rose Elementary. Some schools, because of the layout and what we have in terms of the land space, we have a few more options than other schools.”