Standing behind the retractable gate that comes out when the road is one way are, from left, Clara Hoffman, Teddy Cummings, Sam Gamage, Frank Umlauf, Brice Gunher, Roark Charkou, Nic Mansfield, Sylvia Kantor, Linda Squilla, Mila Rodgers and Zareen Alban and teacher Mary Alice Zavocki. Students who are not pictured but took part include Sam Cook, Finn Murtagh, Maddie Sturgis and Leila Harrison.
Mary Alice Zavocki, Maplewood Middle School’s Creative Computing and Design teacher, is proud of her middle school students.
Fifteen students, now in 8th and 9th grades, came up with a plan last year to put a new traffic pattern in place around Maplewood Middle School. The plan was called Solution 3, implementing one-way traffic at key times of the morning surrounding the school.
It was presented to Maplewood Township officials and earned the students a spot as finalists in the New Jersey School Board Association’s state-wide contest, STEAM Tank Challenge. They could win up to $10,000 for STEM programs in their school.
“It’s fantastic,” said Zavocki. “The kids did all the work. They deserve all the credit. It’s our first year participating in the Tank Challenge.”
The plan was organized last year before winter break. It involved 15 students in grades 7 and 8: Nic Mansfield, Teddy Cummings, Frank Umlauf, Leila Harrison, Sylvia Kantor, Sam Gamage, Sam Cook, Brice Gunther, Mila Rodgers, Lena Squilla, Clara Hoffman, Roark Charkow, Finn Murtagh, Zareen Alban, and Maddie Sturgis-Abbott.
Maddie has since moved to Princeton, but she’s still included. The other 14 remain in the district.
What inspired the students to come up with the plan was their realization that the morning drop-off at the middle school was chaotic.
“Two team members live by the school and noticed it,” said Zavocki. “The entrance along Maple Avenue, where the seventh graders get dropped off, it was a two-way traffic flow. When parents came from both directions, the parents would double park in both directions. The bus would block the only crosswalk.
You’re dropping off your kid, someone behind you is in a hurry, it made for an unsafe situation.”
With the front of the school, along Burnett, being one-way during the morning drop off, the students suggested making the whole loop around the building a “one-way.”
“A presentation was made and one-way was implemented,” said Zavocki.
In addition, a sawhorse barrier, which can easily get blown away or misplaced, was replaced with a gate that gets pulled out and extends across the street.
Before the change, surveys were sent to students, asking if they felt completely safe. Two weeks after the change, students felt safer by 8%.
“We haven’t polled again this year, but there’s a better flow of traffic,” said Zavocki. “There’s no chaos anymore.”
With 550 teams in the contest, being one of the final three is impressive to Zavocki. “This could be patented and expanded to other school districts, carnivals, and affairs,” she said.
On Oct. 22, the students will travel to the New Jersey School Board Association meeting in Atlantic City and answer further questions from the Board, which will announce the grand prize winner that day.
“They’ve worked so hard,” said Zavocki. “They’re such creative innovators and I’m very proud of them.”
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