By Ollie Adams
Staff Writer
New North, new problems! Parking at North has been chaotic since the start of our 2023-24 school year. There has been a massive uproar of complaints from students and staff, so what is really going on? Many people have been frustrated, angered, and confused by the new system. The general consensus is that there needs to be more confirmation about the new rules, and it has left many students with questions surrounding parking and what our school is doing to resolve it.
The first thing that people should know is that parking passes are $50 for students. According to Principal Muñoz, the fee can be waived if you cannot afford the parking pass. You can also talk to our finance clerk in the main office, Joni de Saint Phalle, if you need assistance paying for it. But even with that in mind, there are still many underlying issues. Parents in the community have expressed that students should not have to pay due to their tax dollars going to our schools. Some students and staff were upset about the parking violations that were showing up on vehicles. However, the problem with the violations is they needed to be more specific, and some people who received them weren’t even violating the rules.
As the school year continues, administrators will no longer be putting slips on people’s cars; the violations were ineffective, and nobody paid close attention to them, as many did not know they were breaking any rules. After receiving parking violations, many people were speculating as to if they’d be required to pay a fine. A large percentage of students heard about some obscene fine amounts. There was word that the school would be giving out fines, but ultimately decided against it. It is confirmed that the school will not be giving out fines, according to our assistant principal, Travis Sheaffer.
An Algebra II teacher, Destiny Mendenhall, believes there is not enough staff parking. She goes on to say that it’s “ridiculous” because the school is not correctly using the space and money we have to accommodate our parking needs as a community. She, along with other people, believes that the field on the southeast side of the school should have been made into another parking lot for the staff. We are currently using the area for green space, a concern of many who feel that area could have been used more effectively.
The first section of the main parking lot is for staff. Though inconvenient for some students, it will stay the same throughout the school year. Many students have reported that they think it should be first come, first serve. It appears that the majority thinks this seems very reasonable, seeing as sometimes students are at the school before staff. A lot of the time, there are still spots open after 8:15 in the morning, which is well after when teachers are expected to be at the school. Staff members have parking that wraps around almost the entire school, but there is still a need for more parking. At the beginning of construction, the amount of parking spaces required for our staff was not accounted for. The faculty lot has 82 available parking spaces, which does not provide enough room for our 100-plus staff members, so they have a section in the student parking lot. Travis Sheaffer has said that at some point this year, signs will be put up to differentiate staff from student parking. This is very helpful because, as of right now, the line is unclear. But eventually, the issue will be resolved.
Parking this year has been a central topic of discussion and has sparked many new conversations in our community about how we can better use our space and money. Students on the whole are hoping that communication about topics that impact us will be more clear in the future. Hopefully, new ideas will be taken into consideration for the following years. Voicing your opinions in the form of offering constructive feedback has pushed for this problem to be discussed thoroughly. We are optimistic that it will soon be resolved.
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