Every driver knows the chaos that occurs each morning in the parking lot. Finding the right spot to park is a hassle. Whether they are trying to park up close or far away, this process needs to be changed.

Changing the parking system is a lot simpler than it seems. Every year at schedule pick up, juniors and seniors purchase their parking pass. These students are able to purchase a semester long pass or a year-long pass. A great idea to reduce the parking lot traffic in the morning is to assign parking spots at schedule pick up.

Each parking spot could be labelled with a number, and when a student purchases a parking pass, they would be assigned a number to match the spot they are supposed to park in.

Seniors will still have the spots in front of the school if they are part of early release, and their parking tag will have their parking spot number on it. Juniors and seniors that don’t have early release  will get the spots closest to the school in the back lot. Sophomores that drive to school will be the last ones to get assigned a parking spot at schedule pick up when purchasing their parking pass.

This idea will eliminate the process of leaving the house very early to get a spot up close to the school. Many students wake up earlier than they actually need to so they can park close to the school and not have a long walk into the building. With assigned student parking spots, every student would know where they need to park each morning.

Eliminating the traffic in the parking lot will decrease the chances of an accident. No matter where someone is driving, there is always a chance they can get into an accident, but in the school parking lot we can prevent accidents even more than we already do with a new parking systems.

This was an idea Howell tried in the past, but it caused too many tardies to first hour classes. If this parking idea starts up again, students could be threatened with the idea that five tardies that aren’t excused to their first hour class would result in forfeiting their parking pass for the rest of the semester. This will cause a concern with parents, but teachers have records to show tardies that haven’t been excused to prove to parents why the pass will be taken away. Security guards can check the passes during first and second hour to make sure students are in their assigned slot, and if they aren’t they will be fined. This will decrease the chances of someone parking in another student’s assigned parking space.

This new system will create a safe and more efficient parking lot at FHHS.