Lot rage: The war on parking
the “Senior Lot” is overflowed with cars every morning. However not all of these cars belong to seniors. This problem has affect many twelfth graders. Maia Barantsevitch expresses her views on the issue
November 4, 2022
It was the first day of my senior year at The Masters School. I jumped in my car excited at the prospect of driving to school after years of being stuck on the bus. As I pulled into the parking lot, supposedly dedicated to the senior grade, my enthusiasm quickly diminished. I made sure to arrive early to ensure a good parking spot, but to my dismay the lot was completely filled by the early hour of 8:03a.m.
At the corner of Masters hall and the school’s tennis courts lies the well known “Senior Lot”. It is a space on campus that gives seniors a designated area to park, and helps avoid student cars filling up other areas of campus such as the Fonseca Center and Middle School parking lot. But an ongoing issue regarding the Senior Lot is that there are many juniors and faculty taking these spots, leaving seniors to find parking elsewhere.
The reasoning behind this anger is not purely due to the expectations of senior privileges, it is also a space that the security team monitors to ensure senior use only. All twelfth graders who bring a car to school are expected to register their car with security that results in a sticker being put in the corner of your windshield. This helps the school make certain that only seniors are parking in the lot, but this rule is often ignored or avoided.
Aimee Ayala, the senior class president, agrees that the monitoring of the senior parking lot can be precarious when not all cars are registered. “The process of registering your car is quite vague, and as a class president I should probably be informed of it. However, I have no idea,” Ayala said.
There is also the issue of faculty and student parking relations. It has been made clear by administration that students are not allowed in the Fonseca Center (F.C.) parking lot as that is reserved for faculty only. But quite often, the F.C. lot is not full, but the senior lot is.
Ayala has noticed this pattern as well. She said, “It’s a big problem with faculty cars, which is understandable because there is a lack of parking for our faculty. But it’s frustrating because students aren’t supposed to park in the F.C because that’s for teachers only, yet that lot is never full and our lot is.”
Masters has an additional gravel parking lot near Estherwood Mansion that students are allowed to park in. Since juniors are not allowed to park in the senior lot, they are allowed to park there as a last resort but are encouraged to park along Clinton Avenue. However, many juniors do not want to trek up the hill to classes, or are uninformed about their rights to park in that lot, leaving them to take spots that are meant for seniors.
There are two obvious solutions to this dilemma: expand the Senior lot or enforce the monitoring of the lot and registration of cars. I understand the time, money, and maintenance needed to expand an entire lot which is why the latter is a more reasonable solution.
The monitoring of the senior lot does not begin until around the first week of November. Students, faculty, and on-campus residents are still applying for parking permits. The permits come in three forms:one is for students, one is for residents, and the final is for faculty and staff. Each permit is color-coded for each category, which helps security monitor who is parking where.
Director of Security , Victor Sequinot, has been a parent at Masters for eight years and has been working with the school for two and a half years. Seguinot works with students, faculty, and on-campus residents to help register their cars, and monitor the senior parking lot.
The first step in weeding out unregistered cars will be putting a warning sign on cars that don’t have the parking permit sticker on their windshield letting them know they are illegally parked.
Seguinot understands the entitlement seniors deserve when it comes to parking at school.
“ Seniors deserve that tradition. Some seniors have been here since middle school, and that’s one of the perks that you should be able to get here,” he said.
It is difficult to determine whether a car is owned by a junior or senior when not all seniors have attained a registration sticker. Having a harsher approach may be necessary to ensure that the only student parking in the lot is seniors.
Unfortunately the consequences for students without permits have to be dealt with by administration, not security. Seguinot said, “It is harder for us from our end, you know, the administration has to communicate with them because when it comes to punitive measures in the school security is able to report it but it’s really up to the administration to sit down with the student and explain the consequences.”
Although this is a problem that many current seniors, as well as past and most likely future, find frustrating, it must be remembered that student parking is not a priority for the administration. The school has bigger issues to worry about than finding a spot near campus or having to trudge to class from Clinton Avenue.
But with something as simple as an explanation or and announcement of how to register your car as a student, will help security ensure senior parking only, and avoid students getting ticketed. Monthly reminders and clarification of the consequences students will face if their car is not registered, or if they are not a senior, can also be a useful fear tactic in ensuring I have a spot every morning. The security team can only do so much, any consequential change must be made by the administration.
This may seem like an insubstantial issue, but it is one that can be so easily resolved, and one that can minimize the discontent of students towards the administration.
