After the installation and construction period of the student parking lot solar panels, parking has been much more abundant. However, the circle lot, intended for staff, visitors, and parents, remains full of student cars. Recently, there’s been an influx of students parking in the staff lot, so much so that staff members have been unable to find parking. 

“It recently has been brought to our attention… that teachers aren’t able to find a place to park,” assistant principal Tina Perez said.

As the second semester of the school year starts, more and more students became comfortable parking in the lot meant for faculty, making it increasingly difficult for guests, teachers, para-educators, and staff to come in and conduct business with the school purely because they cannot find a spot.

As a solution, assistant principals Tiffany Dyer and Perez have been monitoring the parking lot before school and during breaks to ensure that no students park in the lot. They give each student who parks there a warning, but lets them know that if it happens again, they will be given a citation. 

“We have to be able to have places for parents, staff, teachers, and visitors to park without having to walk from the neighborhoods or having to park in student parking,” Perez said.

Many students, on the other hand, are upset with this recent reinforcement. The reconstruction of the parking lot last year, due to the solar panels, changed the parking lot for the worse. As a result of the addition of the big cement slabs holding the solar panels, spots have gotten smaller, the aisles became more compact, and collisions and door dings happen more frequently.

Complaints range from not wanting to walk as far, to being concerned for their car’s and their own safety.

“Students are upset because I don’t feel like a lot of us are given a safe spot for our vehicles,” senior Nicolas Faught said. “The parking spaces [and driving aisles] are narrow and small, so if your car isn’t small, [it] pokes out into the driving area and causes risk [of being damaged].”

According to Faught, his car has been scratched and dinged a multitude of times in the student lot, even while parked safely and correctly in a spot.

“When a tight parking lot is mixed with several new drivers, nothing good can come out of it,” senior Wyatt Munger said. “On top of that, there is a lot of reckless driving in general.”

In the staff parking lot, students felt their cars were safer, so more and more students found themselves parking their cars there, until it eventually became a problem for faculty. However, the students are now wanting more protection in the student lot. 

“There’s no security or cameras, so if anything was to happen, I have no way to find out who did it,” Faught said. “I feel like there’s security and protection for the other lots, but when it comes to students’ cars, it feels like they don’t care.”

Multiple students proposed cameras as a solution, forcing those “reckless drivers” to drive more safely. Other students opted for bigger spots, making it easier for bigger cars to safely park.

As administrators continue monitoring the staff parking lot, the broader issue of student parking remains unresolved. While faculty need reliable access to designated spaces, students are asking for safer and more secure conditions in their own lot.