Located on the southwest side of campus, the new stadium parking lot was completed in Dec. 2023 and has been open during the school day for student use since the end of the last school year. Costing the district a total of $2.4 million, the new parking lot answered the demand for more accessible and quality parking from students as expressed in a previous Insight article by Natalie Flores titled “Student parking lot system frustrates upperclassmen.” The stadium lot was intended to resolve student grievances; however, as the school year began and people have settled into their routine, the tennis court parking lot continues to be the lot of choice and the stadium lot is predominantly empty.
Senior Daniel Lopez has been driving since April 2023 and is one of the few students to use the stadium parking lot. Before it was available, Lopez had used the tennis court parking lot, but found it inadequate for multiple reasons.
One of those factors is the heavy flow of traffic resulting from the school’s morning drop-off system. Administration asks parents to drop their children off in the teacher parking lot next to the O Building to promote efficiency. With lines leading to the designated drop-off spot stemming from both streets, Cameron and Mobeck, cars can back up halfway to Lark Ellen during the morning rush.
Besides morning traffic, heat and lack of space have annoyed student drivers. The tennis court lot only offers 72 parking spaces (52 less than the stadium lot) and was not built with solar panels or other methods of providing shade, so cars parked there are exposed to the sun.
“No matter what, if I put the sun shade up or not it gets super hot in there. I moved to the other one because it has solar panels and there’s a bunch of shade… I want to park over there (the stadium parking lot) because I want it to be more convenient for me,” said Lopez.
When asked why he believed the new parking lot was not being used by other students, Lopez was unable to provide a direct answer.
“A lot less people are parking there and it’s like, if you want to get into a thousand-degree car that’s your choice, not mine,” said Lopez.
Other students have expressed that they want to use the stadium parking lot, but were unable to due to time restraints.
For instance, senior Kristina Fuentes has been enrolled in zero-period classes for the past two years. With zero period beginning at 7:30 a.m., Fuentes must arrive on campus around 7:00 a.m. to avoid being tardy. Considering the lot is closed nightly and the first security officers arrive on campus at 7:15 a.m., Fuentes has been unable to park there.
“I’d like to but it’s just never open… I hope the access that the school is hoping to provide with parking lots around campus delivers,” said Fuentes.
The experiences of student drivers similar to Fuentes’ have suggested that one of the main causes for the neglect of the stadium lot was students not knowing when or if it was available. With no traceable schedule being posted online and its recent addition, many simply don’t see it as an option.
Principal Charles Park was approached with this multiple times throughout the school year and implemented a plan to address the issue.
This new plan mandates the gate to be accessible to students starting at 7 a.m. Custodial staff will open the gate and once on campus, security will monitor the lot to ensure safety. The time it will be closed is subject to change depending on the occurrence of on-campus events such as sports activities. On any given day with no events, however, it would be closed around 6 p.m.
The lock-up time would be significantly earlier than that of the tennis court parking lot, which is left open overnight. This is due to the administration wanting to control access points to campus for safety reasons.
“Since there aren’t many cars there, once it clears out, it’s better to keep it closed for security reasons,” said Park.
Although the stadium lot is more restricted, this could change in response to greater demand. Until there is more urgency for it to stay open, it will be less of a focus for the administration.
“When you change practice or have a new facility like the parking lot it takes time for people to get used to it… If I were a student I’d park in the back,” said Park.
Although the stadium parking lot is mostly marketed as a new student parking lot, it is available for faculty and at times visitors. Further use of the stadium parking lot could alleviate ongoing traffic issues.
