With the beginning of the 2024 SRHS school year, students and faculty encounter a recurring issue. With the new construction project taking place in the rear of school, the number of parking spots has been limited again.
There are 41 spots in the senior parking lot located in the front of the school, and this is currently the only available on campus parking for students. Mr. Dominguez, the principal of SRHS, has given out 45 of the 58 approved parking permits requested, allowing 45 seniors to park in the lot.
“I thought about just giving out the 41 spots, but then that was the first couple days of school, and I realized well there’s lots of empty [spots] now, and people are wondering why they can’t park now so I overdo it,” said Mr. Dominguez, as he and administration try to configure the most efficient strategy to accommodate all students.
This has created a first come, first serve environment, forcing students to leave earlier to secure a spot. There are even fewer spots for juniors, with most of them parking on 3rd street, located at the front of school. Brett Skieresz, a junior at SRHS, says; “I leave the house like an hour before school starts.”
“Parking has been an issue since I started working here six years ago. Even before this construction, I brought up my concerns. Parents depend on their students to be able to drive here, find parking, and get to school on time,” Lauren Kilgariff said. Kilgariff, an English teacher at SRHS, was a member of the meeting with administration where plans for this year’s parking was discussed.
“I brought up the concern that while teachers are obviously worried about having a designated parking spot, and making sure it’s open when we get here, we need to consider the spots we are taking away from students,” said Kilgariff.
“Especially for the staff, they were getting very nervous about what parking was gonna look like, because parking was limited as it was, and even when we had all of the lots open. We knew it was going to be a hassle,” said Dominguez. The teachers have lost more than 50 combined spots from the demolition being done in what used to be 2 staff parking lots.
“I think my main concern is just the lack of parking for everyone,” Kilgariff said. “I think that in terms of infrastructure, if we’re gonna serve this many students and this many staff members, there needs to be enough parking for everyone who has a driver’s license and an operating vehicle.”
For seniors like Jack McCall and Harper Corso who do have a permit, parking is less of an issue until about 8:20. By then, most of the spots are full and the remaining students have to park in unmarked spaces throughout the lot, creating traffic jams and students even blocking access to the lot.
Fortunately, there hasn’t been much of an increase in the number of students tardy to class at the beginning of the day. Yet, some students like McCall are occasionally late to a class due to not being able to find a parking spot when they go out for lunch and come back too close to the bell.
So far there has been no towing of vehicles in either lots, because the tow truck company the school hired has gone out of business. The district is working on finding a replacement, but for now, students simply receive a green sticker on their car informing them that if they continue to park illegally, then they will get towed right away. There’s a problem though. Mr. Dominguez said, “It’s hard to know when I sticker a car if it is actually a student or if it is to someone that is a visitor and they’ve just parked in the wrong spot and just didn’t know.”
Another concern with the decrease in spaces available was the community reaction. Since students, juniors especially, are limited in the number of spots that are in a close proximity to campus, some students have to find parking in the surrounding SRHS neighborhood. This can lead to students parking illegally in spots in order to get to class on time. Luckily, Mr. Dominguez hasn’t received many complaints. ”I think people knew this was coming when they started seeing things shut down in the back and in our communication at the beginning of the year. So I think people have prepared for it,” he said.
A specific date for the end of the construction project at SRHS is not very feasible. When construction is complete, the parking in the back will be reallocated to teacher parking. There might be fewer spots because the pool might extend out a little further, but it will still be an improvement to our current situation, and should open up some visitor parking in the front.
The problem is that construction is happening in waves, so even when the pool and the PE area are finished, the next wave of construction will begin in the art building. Mr. Dominguez is assuming that they’re going to lose the same parking lots back there, even going as far as to say “we might be stuck in this parking limbo for the next 2 or 3 school years.”
Parking is statistically more limited than last year, but students and teachers alike are trying to make it work. Without a change in infrastructure at SRHS, parking and traffic could continue to be a challenge for students and teachers, especially as we near the holiday season and the Tree Lot.
The tree lot is historically held in the SRHS senior lot, which poses another possible issue. Mr. Dominguez proposed that the tree lot be moved to the softball field, but the organizers of the Tree lot weren’t too keen on this idea because they believe it cuts into the curb appeal and possible profits. This means that seniors will have no designated parking during the weeks that Tree Lot will take place.
