STURGIS – Today was the first day of classes for Sturgis Public Schools for the 2019-2020 school year.

With the new school year comes a change in how students will be dropped off at Sturgis Middle School.

Sturgis Superintendent Dr. Art Ebert says there have been issues ever since the school opened. While parents drop off students in both the west and east lots, the main issue has been in the east lot, where it can take anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes to drop off a student.

Ebert says in the past, the School has had a police officer directing traffic at the Middle School, but that is not something they want to do long term.

A road safety audit was done by the School District, the City of Sturgis and the St. Joseph Road Commission. From the results of that audit, several options were developed for a long term solutions.

One that the School will be using starting today, is that students can still be dropped off in both the west and east lots. But when parents exit, they can only turn west out of the west lot and east out of the east lot.

School Transportation Director Doug Camburn says buses will also use the east lot to drop off students in the driving lane. Staff will be in the parking lot to help students get safely into the building.

One of the long term solutions the school is looking at is a roundabout at the east drive.

Today was a half day for students.