Numbered school parking spots are now a normalized requirement in the district. Over the summer, Pine Creek's parking lot was resurfaced and in addition to painting new lines, each parking spot received a number. This resulted in a more organized parking lot for students. Students picked their preferred spot during check-in at the end of July, those who missed check-in had to pick from what was left. Parking passes started at $40 and another $40 fee was added if seniors applied to paint their parking spot. The Parent Teacher Partnership sponsored the painted parking spots and the money from the painted spots will go towards After Prom, helping decrease the ticket prices for students.
Principal Korina Bierman said, “Our best hope is that everyone who wants to park on campus can.” However, many students have had issues with other students parking in their designated spots causing confusion on where to park. When students park in a spot that isn't assigned to them, it creates a chain reaction resulting in many misplaced cars.
Trey Heater (11) said, “I come here to school early, because I don’t want anyone to take my spot.” Heater explained that rather than dealing with finding a new spot, he would rather just park in the surrounding area. Luckily for students the school has a ticket system to deal with people who parked in the wrong spots. If a chain reaction happens, the security guards will follow the chain to original stolen spot and ticket that driver. Each ticket incurs more consequences, the first 2 tickets are both $5 fines, the third ticket is 2 lunch detentions, and the fourth ticket is permanent removal of the student’s parking pass. Not all students are happy with having a specified parking spot.
“I absolutely hate it, last year there was no issue choosing a parking spot,” Molly Masciullo (12) said, “[Where I parked] depended on the day, if I needed to go to work for the day I could park in the back and immediately get onto the road.”
Despite the immense changes from last year, according to the staff it has been a success with helping control the traffic issues students face after school. Addressing the concerns of students, Principal Bierman said, “The fear of change is harder than what the impact has been.”
Story by Aleksander Christ
This article is produced by Talon Media, the student voice of Pine Creek High School. For more news and features, visit the Talon Media website.