October 4, 2018
By Ollie Rourke
This year, in conjunction with the Lexington Police Department, the Lexington High School administration made significant changes to the parking for students and faculty. The school claims that these changes were necessary, since they didn’t have enough permanent parking spots on campus to cover the staff’s needs.
The school made a variety of changes to address existing concerns. They added more faculty-only parking, but permitted senior student parking was reduced to 25 spaces and moved to the Worthen Lot. All non-permitted students driving to school are required to park on Worthen Road as well. Lastly, the Lexington Police will be monitoring Park Drive and Clark Street more diligently this year and ticketing cars parked illegally.
While these changes had good intentions, they have created several problems for students. First, the administration reduced the total senior parking spots allotted to students. Senior parking has historically been coveted by students who participate in a raffle to win the chance to purchase a selective spot. Competition is fierce, and with the reduced amount of spaces, even more students have been denied official parking.
“I was hoping to get a senior parking spot this year,” Jonny Bachman, a senior, said. “There are only 25 spots now, so I knew my chances were slim.”
Permitted senior parking is valued by students because it gives them a parking option a short distance from school. Any LHS driver that is not one of the lucky 25 has only one parking option permitted by the school: Worthen Road.
In years past, many students parked in what is referred to as the “J Lot”, or junior lot. The J Lot is a parking area located between the school athletic fields and the math building. Many students would park along the road that connected this area to the school’s back entrance.
Unfortunately, this area is now closed off with caution tape, and students risk receiving a ticket if found parking there. It was a questionable decision to restrict access to this area, and it is currently serving no purpose.
This results in overcrowding on Worthen Road, where the cars stretch further down the street than in any year past. Cars are squeezed dangerously close together, and students park in awkward or inconvenient places simply because they have no other spot for their cars.
“I have to arrive to school much earlier than in years past, because Worthen fills up quite quickly,” Bachman said.
Although the administration's new rules seem a bit over the top, their more stringent regulation of the new senior lot is a step in the right direction. Students who win the lottery for the senior parking are required to put special stickers on their car to designate their parking status.
In years past, it was very easy for any student to park in the senior lot without fear of a ticket. This year, the administration has been much stricter with checking the senior lot, frequently sending staff out to check on the car stickers. Although this system seems more “fair,” the problem would be solved if there were more legal parking spots in the first place.
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