How to have a successful car line

With four lines of cars to look through, Hudson Zoernack always had trouble finding his dad, Steve Zoernack’s, car at the end of the school day at Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy. 

Every day there was car after car of parents waiting for the bell to ring and students to pour out of the charter school.

With so many big, dark colored SUVs like his dad’s, Hudson Zoernack thought of a way to make his dad’s car stand out.

Hudson Zoernack suggested Steve Zoernack hang a colorful Hawaiian lei from the rearview mirror so his car would be easier to find. The lei, which is from Disney’s Polynesian Resort, would also serve as a happy reminder of the memories from their stay at the resort.

Steve Zoernack said ever since he started hanging the lei in the second week of school in August 2023, his son is able to find the car much quicker and more easily.

Courtesy image

The car lines during drop-off and pick-up times can be chaotic and sometimes, an aspect of school that people dread, but parents work with teachers and staff to make it as smooth and safe a process as possible, while also having fun.

Todd Richardson, the principal at B.D. Gullett Elementary School, along with the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization, sends out a list of nine things people should know about the school’s car line.

The tips are not only about safety and protocols but also about how to make it a fun process. For example, fourth on the need-to-know list is “embarrass your child,” suggesting parents make sure they yell out the window how much they love their children, with bonus points for using nicknames.

Liz Semmerling, a parent at Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy, has volunteered to help at the car line since the school’s inception in 2022. In the 2023-2024 school year, she made the car line into a little game with one lower school student.

Every time Semmerling saw the giant lifted truck approach in the car line, she was ready. She said she would wave to the student inside the truck who would duck below the window and hide. It became a game of hide and seek.

“It was kind of our daily thing,” Semmerling said. “I got to know the mom and I’d stop and talk to her (at other times). It was just a fun, cute thing we would do.”

Semmerling said she loves to volunteer for the car line to not only help keep students safe but also to help start “kids on the right foot” for the day.

“You never know what kind of morning they had, so to say a ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ or ‘have a good day’ can give them that little something extra they might not have gotten in the morning at home,” she said.

The biggest tip principals and parents have for others is to be patient, especially in the first few weeks of school.

Richardson said even parents who have been through the car line for years have to be reminded of the process, and for schools where a majority of students are driven to school, the lines can be long.

Many schools track the time it takes at the beginning of the school year to get everyone through the car line with hopes that each day will bring a faster time. Although staff members might not have stopwatches in hand, it almost becomes a race for the schools every day to see how fast they can safely get the cars through the line.

Richardson recalled one day looking at the clock on the welcome sign outside Gullett Elementary one day to see the car line was 7 minutes slower than the day before.

“I remember telling the staff, ‘I don’t know what happened but we were behind today. We have to pick it up tomorrow,’” he said.