The honking horns are the perfect start to your Monday, you think, as you groan into your steering wheel.
As you look for a parking space, you realize that most of them are full. In your peripherals, you see students running across the road away from the car that their parent had dropped them off in. On the other side, there are two teens arguing over who gets a parking spot they both saw, and a security guard trying to control the 800 to 900 students that are all trying to park and make it to class on time.
How can a school that is so popular, and well-funded, only have two exits for the 3,000 plus students and staff? We don’t know. But what we do know, is that Grandview’s parking lot is a giant, unorganized mess.
Security supervisor, Bill Chavez, agrees, especially when it comes to parent drop off.
“To tell you the truth, we don’t have the manpower to tell people to come here and drop off your kid here and move along. Parents are on their own. It could be better organized,” said Chavez.
This overwhelming attendance spike has also affected how the parking lot is dealt with.
“We have 750 parking spots and we sell out of parking passes,” said Chavez. “This year, we have our biggest enrollment so I think about 825 parking passes/students driving.”
Because we have such a big attendance, also with 300 staff members, there is more of a risk for accidents to occur.
“This year alone has had at least 15-20 accidents reported to us,” said Chavez.
While this is true, according to Principal Doctor Lisa Roberts, a majority of the accidents do not happen in our parking lots.
“More of our accidents happen in our roadways in and out of our building,” said Roberts.
With only two exits, the hundreds of students trying to leave are all slowly moving through the streets.
“We have over 3,000 people in the building and they all want to get out of here at 3:30, so we aim to get them out at 3:50, which is about 2,000 cars that want to get out of here,” said Chavez. “At 3:40, we stop all the traffic, and we have 20 busses we have to let out which slows everything down.”
From a student perspective, it is also a problem.
It could be better organized.
Jenna Maine, a senior, thinks that the parking lot is a time waster.
“Leaving after school is 20 minutes just in line waiting and then another 10 to get to the main road,” said Maine.
So what is the solution to this problem?
If most of the accidents happen on our roads that go onto the property, then more entries would decrease that number.
“If we could have one more [exit], it would help a lot,” said Chavez.
Administration is also aware of the problem.
Dr. Roberts had talked about adding another exit, and Maine also thought the idea would help.
“It would get us out a lot faster and it’d be safer,” said Maine.
So, do you have any parking lot horror stories? Let us know in the comments below!
