Public school officials will meet with the Vicksburg Police Department officers to prevent a clog in traffic that developed between Vicksburg and Warren Central junior high schools Friday afternoon.
Parents picking up their children at the Vicksburg Warren School District’s two junior highs were stuck in traffic — some for up to a half hour due to a blockage on Weems Street.
That blockage, vehicles parking along both lanes of Weems Street, should not be as big of an issue Monday, said VWSD Superintendent Chad Shealy.
“That road that runs between the two schools —  there were people that were parked on both sides of the road. It’s already a narrow street,” Shealy said.
Katrina Johnson, whose husband Vic Johnson was picking up their seventh-grade son, said the traffic situation at VJHS was the worst she had encountered in the district.
“We’ve never had a problem like that,” she said. “Last year, they let you park along the fence (which runs along Weems Street). The principal came out and told them they couldn’t park there.”
The issue, though not as bad in the morning, still presented problems for Johnson.
“This morning when I dropped him off, I couldn’t get out,” she said. “There were cars halfway in the parking lot and halfway in the street.”
Shealy said a blockage on either side of Baldwin Ferry or on Weems Street would grind traffic to a halt.
“Logistically, you’ve got two campuses and three streets coming in, all three of which converge between the two schools,” he said. “It just becomes kind of a little quagmire.
Weems Street runs perpendicular to Baldwin Ferry Road, the main road used to enter and exit the two junior high schools.
Shealy said once Vicksburg police officers were notified, they began having parents move the vehicles that were blocking the road.
Shealy said he expects Dwayne Sims, the district’s lead safety officer who oversees the school resource officers, to meet with Vicksburg police Chief Walter Armstrong to find a solution.