Crews will begin construction this summer for a parent drive addition to Decker Prairie Elementary School, located at 27427 Decker Prairie Rosehill Road, Magnolia, after months of community members expressing safety concerns, said Jim Ross, Tomball ISD chief financial officer. Ross presented design plans for Decker Prairie to the TISD board of trustees during a workshop meeting on Monday. The project will add a 20- to 25-foot driveway behind the elementary school to reroute vehicles awaiting student dismissal in the afternoons. Currently, the afternoon school traffic lines Decker Prairie Rosehill Road, causing safety concerns, Ross said. He said he estimates the drive addition—which will be gated off for the majority of the day—will fit about 60 vehicles at a time. "We just want to get these cars off the road," he said. Ross said safety concerns for parent pickup surfaced during the facility steering committee's months-long research last spring, ahead of the $275 bond referendum that was put to voters in November. "Every single meeting we heard, 'What are you going to do about Decker Prairie?'" Ross said. "Decker Prairie is the smallest site we have for a campus. It's only 10 acres. ... So there was very little we could talk about." Since last spring, Ross said he has met with various city, county, district and engineering officials to find a solution to the pickup concerns. To mitigate afternoon traffic congestion on Decker Prairie Rosehill Road and improve safety for drivers, Ross said the group proposed widening the county roadway, which would also include fixing drainage, adding turn lanes and acquiring property from nearby landowners—a costly and difficult project that would be done in partnership with Montgomery County Precinct 2. To provide a more immediate solution, Ross said the district awarded a contract in early May at the superintendent's approval for the addition of a driveway behind the school. Construction will total no more than $180,000, Ross said. The funding for the project comes from a bond referendum approved by voters in 2013. "We agreed on adding a vehicle stacking lane behind Decker Prairie, and it was very cost-effective," Ross said. "We feel like it will meet the need." TISD has constructed similar parent driveways at Northpointe Intermediate, Willow Creek Elementary and Tomball Junior High schools, Ross said. "The campus likes this, we like it and the [county] commissioner certainly likes it," Ross said.