New Parking Plan to be Implemented

Photo by Morgan Browning

The administration is planning to implement a new parking policy for the 2017-18 school year, where each student with a parking pass has an assigned parking spot. This new plan is an attempt to fix the overcrowding of the senior lot this year.

Associate Principal Britt Haney says he’s 90 percent sure that this plan will be put into effect next year. Numbers will be painted onto each of the parking spots before the new school year begins in August. Each parking pass sold to incoming juniors and seniors will have a number that corresponds to a specific parking spot. Seniors will have the first chance to purchase passes at the beginning of the school year, and juniors will be allowed to buy the remaining passes later in that day. Sophomores will be allowed to obtain passes if any remain after they’re offered to juniors. Parking passes will begin at $60, decreasing by $15 at the end of every quarter.

Students who either fail to park in their assigned parking spot or park on campus without a pass will be ticketed and asked to move their car to public parking, also known as the sophomore lot. The current ticket policy will remain the same; tickets will start at $10 and increase by $10 for every additional ticket.

Students have expressed differing opinions in regards to the new policy. Senior Chloe Azorsky has high hopes for the plan. She hopes that it will solve the problem of the overcrowded lot and believes that it will make parking easier for all students.

“I’d honestly rather have a spot, even if it’s in the back, that I know I’d get to park in every day rather than have to worry about where I’m going to park . . . or park on Delmar or park illegally because I’m in a rush and get a ticket,” Azorsky said.

Sophomore Maddie Seymour, who bought a parking pass at the beginning of second semester, will be excited at the prospect of not having to worry about finding a place to park as a junior as well. Even though she recognizes that the plan would mostly benefit upperclassmen, she thinks the plan is fair because freshmen and sophomores would eventually reap the benefits.

Sophomore Liza Sanborn, on the other hand, thinks the new policy is unfair to students who arrive to school early. She bought a parking pass when they were sold to 60 sophomores at the beginning of second semester and sometimes leaves her house 30 minutes early in order to park toward the front of the junior lot. She said she feels where students park should be based on the time they get to school.

“If you get a spot way in the back, but you’re always there super early and someone in the front is always there late, you could’ve taken that parking spot,” Sanborn said. “[With this plan] you couldn’t because it would be illegal . . . That’s just not fair to me.”

Junior Hazel Carson is also opposed to the new policy, because she likes the choice she’s given with the current system. Although she usually parks toward the back of the senior lot because she likes those spots, she likes to have the freedom to park in different spaces depending on what class she’s going to.

“I like being able to park in different places, because sometimes I have a class to go to that’s closer [to a certain spot] and so I like being able to change between the senior lot and junior lot if necessary,” Carson said. “I think the best system is to just have [the closest spots] for the people who get to school on time and the earliest.”

Even though Carson and Sanborn are against the new parking plan, they both acknowledge that the plan has the potential to reduce the illegal parking that occurs on campus.

Seymour doesn’t think the new policy would completely fix the problem of overcrowding, but she feels the situation could be improved.

“People would still probably [park illegally] if they couldn’t get the passes, but [the new plan] might help,” Seymour said. “If you have a certain spot to go to, it would be easier to figure out if [someone] wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Despite some student opposition, the parking lot will most likely be painted at the beginning of August. Assuming no complications arise, the plan should go into effect at the start of the next school year.

graphic by Pauline Shaver