AUBURN — Fairview Elementary School will get more parking next summer to help relieve traffic jams when parents drop off and pick up students.

About $525,000 will be spent creating more parking because space is inadequate, Auburn School Department Business Manager Jude Cyr told the School Committee on Wednesday night.

There’s so little room that cars double park and illegally park. “It needs to be done before somebody gets hurt,” Cyr said.

School Committee member Francois Bussiere said he had visited the school to observe traffic before and after school. “It’s absolutely a zoo,” he said.

Rob Woodland, a civil engineer with Deluca-Hoffman, gave a presentation to the committee, showing plans to create parking to the east of the building, where people now park illegally, blocking a fire lane. The plan is to fill in land and pave to create legal spaces and a fire lane.

More spaces will be created in front of the school, and an improved entrance will help traffic flow and improve safety, Cyr said. The plan will bring the number of parking spaces from 60 to 72.

Fairview Principal Cathy Foley said parking and traffic flow also will be better organized. Parking will be designated for parents and visitors and for drop-off and pickup.

“We’ll start training them to the flow when we get the spaces,” Foley said. “Right now, we have people parked across the street; we’ve got people doubled parked. We have three staff members out there every day making sure kids aren’t running (in front of traffic).” The new system will provide better order, she said.

The project will be done during the summer after school is dismissed, Cyr said.