With parking limited to 200 spots at Chapel Hill High School, a number of juniors are upset that they are not able to drive to school.
A parking space costs $100.00 per school year, and seniors were given priority over juniors when spots were assigned in August, leaving 77 11th-grade students without parking.
Junior Stella Schmaling is one such student, despite filling out the required forms and waiting in line before the first day of school.
“I stood in line for half an hour before knowing there wasn’t going to be a pass for me,” Schmaling said. “I filled out all the things and got there at exactly the time that the doors were open, but there was already a huge line.”
Several juniors who weren’t given a parking space have found alternative ways to drive to school.
The Unity Church, located at 8800 Seawell School Road, granted parking spaces to some students, including Schmaling. The church charges students $100 per semester—twice the rate students would pay for an official school parking spot.
“I was able to make a deal with the church and pay to have a parking spot there instead. It was still a huge inconvenience because I still had to walk ten minutes,” Schmaling said.
Students, however, must have a permit to park at Unity Church. “The church got mad at my friend for parking without getting permission first, and her car got towed,” Schmaling said.
Other students have reported parking on the street in neighborhoods close to the school.
Juniors who participated in the school’s TigerLinks program were given priority, which created some controversy among students.
“I talked with [interim principal] Ms. Levins, and she agreed to open up parking registration at 8:30 for junior members of the TigerLink team only,” TigerLinks faculty advisor Tom Stanfa said.
Junior Emma Sabet is part of the TigerLinks program, and she, along with her friends also in the program, were granted spaces. “I didn’t even have my license yet, but I showed them my permit and was still able to get a pass because I was a part of TigerLinks,” Sabet said.
Juniors who were not granted a parking spot may still receive one, however. Assistant principal Ally Scercy said the school will be allotting additional parking spaces to students.
“Smith Middle School is allowing us to have 30 parking spots. Starting next week, we’ll give the various parking spots to students on the waitlist,” Scercy said.
Scercy acknowledged that invariably there are more requests for parking spaces than there are spaces themselves.
“Part of the reason why it’s so difficult to give everyone a spot is that our enrollment is higher, which made it more difficult to get to the parking. We run out every year,” she said.
Senior Ellen Holly, who drives to school, believes the current system of assigning parking spots is an equitable one.
“I do think the parking distribution is fair because it’s first come, first serve,” she said. “I didn’t have any problems getting a parking pass last year as a junior.”
Other students believe that other considerations should be considered when parking spots are distributed.
“I think they should have taken into account the people who are able to walk home from school, and given more spots to people who need to drive to school,” senior Claire Deen said.
