Oak Harbor School District is in the midst of making student drop offs at Hillcrest Elementary safer and easier by creating a new buses-only entrance from Heller Road.

Since the school was built in 1988, buses and other vehicles enter and exit through one road off Northwest 2nd Avenue.

“It creates a real traffic mess with parents driving and kids walking and seven buses,” said Brian Hunt, school district facilities director.

Workers started on the project last week, and it should be complete in about a week, Hunt said.

“Parents will get their children off to school quicker,” said Principal Paula Seaman.

“It also will be safer for students and parents because the buses won’t be making such tight turns into the school grounds when students are walking home and Second Avenue is full of parked cars waiting to pick up their children,” she said. “I appreciate the district’s support in working so hard to help solve this problem.”

The new entrance will feature a sliding gate and is wide enough for two buses to pass each other.

Giving buses their own egress should make drop-off faster and also keep traffic from backing up onto Heller Road — a main route for people driving to work at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

“It affects people who don’t have kids at the school too,” he said.

Student pick-up and drop- off is slated to get better at Olympic View Elementary too. Over the summer, the district plans to enlarge the loop so parents dropping off students don’t back up onto Regatta Drive.