With the ongoing construction, parking at Westside has recently expanded to provide a little extra room. Students were surveyed about the change and about student parking in general at Westside High School. To find out how they feel, senior Jayden Schremser gave a statement.
“It’s [the expansion] a bandaid to fix a bigger problem,” senior Jayden Schremser said.
This statement reflects a common response, representing how much of the student body feels about the current parking situation. A total of 73.1% of students agreed that opening 88th Street is not a viable solution to the parking troubles. Senior Ja’Taizja Flowers is also concerned about the distance from the new spaces to the school.
“That parking area is unreasonably far from any of the school entrances. This will definitely make it almost impossible to get to class on time unless you leave at a ridiculously early time. That parking area just isn’t realistic for students, especially since they have to go all the way up and around just to get inside the school,” Flowers said.
While this solution is time-consuming for students, many feel it is also unrealistic. The space on 88th Street holds around 15 cars, while more spots than that are being taken by construction workers. Over 94% of students agree that parking has gotten more difficult since construction started at Westside. Students are forced to change their arrival times in order to find a parking spot. Seniors like Nex Shuffty are frustrated by this.
“You can’t guarantee that you’re going to find parking. When you’re late, the walk to get back into the building is not worth it. When you need to leave to get food, it takes too long to get there, get the food, come back, and eat it before you can get into the building. When you can’t bring in food it makes life 100 times harder,” Shuffty said.
According to the survey, 82.1% of students with off-campus passes would rather stay at school than lose their parking spot. For those students, this means they often only leave campus if a place is within walking distance of the school. Juniors like Lillyan Crouch agree that parking has become more complicated.
“Because it’s just gonna be more complicated to leave and get in, considering people are gonna be flooding over that area. Which means if you wanna leave campus for an open mod, you’d risk spending the whole time leaving and then finding a spot. Which is not worth the risk at all,” Crouch said. “I won’t be paying for something that could be free, unless there is a good enough reason as to why I should be paying. I don’t get a guaranteed parking spot every day.”
Combined with these parking concerns, Westside also tickets students who are not parked within the limited areas. Ticketing students without providing what they feel is an adequate solution only adds to their frustration. Seniors like Leo Graff are concerned with the current situation.
“I think that the parking can get terrible. It stresses me out when I have to be in class, but I have to wait for someone to leave after the bell rings to move their car. It’s either I get a ticket, or I get tardy or unexcused. They all add up quickly,” Graff said.
The average time a student shows up to school is 7:30 a.m. Before they even arrive, most of the parking is taken by construction workers and athletes at morning practice. But if a student arrives early for a good parking spot, they say they would have to sit in their cars for about 45 minutes. Senior Evelyn Jasa, who has an ACT parking spot, believes too many student spaces have been given away.
“It is honestly ridiculous. I understand we do not have the space, but we also should not be giving up the limited space we already have,” Jasa said.
Of those surveyed, 74.4% of students agreed that there was already a parking problem before construction began. Closing Jock Lot, closing 85th Street, and construction workers taking spots have only made the issue worse. Senior Lauren Allen and others agree that there are not enough spots available for all students.
“It does not provide enough parking for students when the average size of a class is around 500 students. At least 300 students drive, and there might be 150 spots for seniors — not to mention that juniors and some sophomores also drive to school,” Allen said.
The school has recently given out guaranteed parking spots for those who scored higher than a 21 on the ACT. While the school believes they are doing a “service” for students, some feel it causes more problems. The ACT spot wasn’t guaranteed for every high score; it was a randomized name drawing among students who scored above average. Many feel this is not the right way to encourage high test scores and that it only upsets students who paid to park on campus without a guaranteed spot. Senior Aslyn Schenkelberg and other students expressed their frustration in the survey.
“If we’re spending $60 on a parking pass, there should be guaranteed parking,” Schenkelberg said.
Overall, students feel that Westside needs to come up with a permanent solution for the parking problem instead of relying on temporary fixes. Finding a parking spot should not be the hardest part of anyone’s day. Until the problem is solved, students are left with an impossible choice: ticket or tardy?
