New Parking Spots Affect Junior Class

Construction+over+the+summer+lessened+the+parking+space+available+to+all+SJHHS+students.+Recently+built+student+parking+lot+still+is+unable+to+provide+enough+parking+for+students+due+to+the+construction+still+underway+near+the+C+and+B+buildings.+Photo+by+Ethan+Clarke

Construction over the summer lessened the parking space available to all SJHHS students. Recently built student parking lot still is unable to provide enough parking for students due to the construction still underway near the C and B buildings. Photo by Ethan Clarke

Sam Newman, Opinion Editor

The junior class of 2018 has started the new school year carpooling, biking, or finding other means to make it to school on time, even if they are licensed and have a car to drive. The only problem with getting to school is that the school does not have enough parking spots for everyone.

After construction to the traffic circle on the SJHHS parking lot, new parking spots were added, but not enough to compensate for the spots taken away from students. All the parking spots near buildings B and C are no longer available this year due to the construction of a new building.

The seniors obviously had priority with the distribution of parking spots, but the 100 remaining spots after them were to be given to the juniors.

Around 188 juniors applied to be entered into a lottery system that would determine if they could park at school.

Over 88 juniors did not receive a spot from this system, and since then, more have applied to be entered into the lottery for later drawings, if parking spots become available.

The junior class was parted into two sides: those who received a spot, and those who did not.

Obviously, there is a portion of people who do not have a license, but are still angered because there will be no available spots for when they do pass the driving test.

However, the third groups’ hope was diminished by Mr. Salter, one of the Assistant Principals, when he said, “I don’t anticipate there to be many parking spots [that will be available throughout the year]. On average the last few years, I might have taken away four, five, maybe ten the whole year.”

Realizing that existing parking spots would not be given up in the near future, students started brainstorming alternative ways to resolve the parking problem.

Junior Joe Kitaen created a petition to try to bring the problem to the attention of the administration and collected almost 100 signatures, but, after a failed meeting with parents and the administration, he took down the petition.

“It was something I started to bring awareness and to see how many people were mad with [along] me,” Kitaen said.

Not only is the junior class angered, but parents of those children and the sophomore class are angered as well.

In previous years a small number of sophomores were able to go onto a waiting list and receive a parking spot if they were old enough to have a license. Obviously, this year that will not happen.

Another junior, Brianna Rodriguez said, “[It] has brought families yet another challenge and a simple one at that: getting their child to school.”

Parents are now struggling as they try to juggle kids around in carpools or drop off their students in a rush before getting to work. Many students have resorted to carpooling to school with friends who are under the age of 17, even though this illegal in the state of California.

Not only are parents inconvenienced, but now, kids are breaking the law just to get to school.

No real solution has been presented that the administration has not turned down. The suggestion of using a portion of designated visitor parking spots was debunked because the administration claims all the spots are used by the schools’ many visitors.

Although the school has a number of parents and district visitors who do require those spots, not all of them are used. If the school ever had a large event that would require large numbers of visitors, they would schedule it on a weekend or night to give them more parking room.

Another suggestion was using some of the faculty spots by the baseball field, but again this alternative was shot down. Mr. Salter said, “What some people don’t realize is that we also have itinerant staff.” Itinerant staff are staff who do not come to school every day due to jobs at other locations or schools.

So basically these spots are only used some days, and, although it would be complicated, a system could be worked out to have those spots shared among the itinerant staffers, or by the staff and students.

Yet another idea that never developed enough to become a real solution was that of temporarily using the LDS dirt lot while the construction to the church is still developing. Juniors who lack parking spots would be more then willing to park on a dirt lot to enable them to park at school.

The junior class is continuing to form and propose solutions to fix this problem that prohibits them from getting to school easily. However, the real problem is that the school does not seem to want to find a solution.