Aragon Parking Policy: No Room To Park

Every day over a hundred Aragon seniors wake up early to race to secure a spot in Aragon’s already cramped parking lot. The unlucky ones resign themselves to parking on the less-desirable hill, a longer walk to the buildings. However, with only 127 spaces available for student use, they still consider themselves lucky.

The number of students who drive to school and need to park has increased steadily over the years. The current spaces along the front parking lot and the hill lining the tennis courts do not supply the growing demand for parking permits. With the smallest campus and the largest student body in the district, 1595 students, Aragon has never had enough spaces for students to park. “It’s always been an issue due to campus size, and unfortunately there is no easy answer,” says Vice Principal Joe Mahood.

The administration initially opened parking registration only to seniors, leaving many hopeful juniors in the dust. Once the majority of seniors received their spots, the juniors seized the small number of remaining permits.

“I came in Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and they still turned me down…” says Junior Sarah Manning. “However, I understand that seniors have priority. I’ll just wait my turn.”

“I feel bad for the juniors,” says Head of Student Services Dounia Kardosh, “Every year less juniors get parking permits, but there’s nothing we can do right now.”

“I’ll just be happy if I can get a parking permit,” says Manning. “My back won’t be strained from walking home, and I’ll be more motivated to do homework when I get home.”

Aragon has no current plans to expand student parking, although both students and faculty have expressed a desire to do so. “It’s a big issue for everyone, I understand. But we have no space to go. If land opened up near Aragon, we could theoretically buy it if the district allowed us. However, we would rather spend that money on something more necessary for the school,” says Mahood.

Kardosh oversells the parking permits by five to ten every year to maximize the lots capacity on days when not every student drives. “Early in lunch, I look for vacant spaces on the side road. The more vacancies, the more students who can park,” says Kardosh. This year, Kardosh issued 155 permits.

“We’re doing the best we can with very little land,” says Mahood.

The Environmental Impact Committee and the administration have been working together to implement a carpool parking policy. “The [Environmental Impact Committee] proposed the idea a while ago, but we had to do some research first,” says Mahood, “We would place carpool spaces in the parking lot. It should relieve some congestion and let more students park.” Carpool spaces should be implemented sometime next month.

However, the administration remains adamant about enforcing the rules. Three years ago, double-parked cars became a fire hazard on the hill leading to the tennis courts. The administration pulled students out of class to repark their cars because of the danger the congestion created.

Kardosh says, “It started happening in May, and everyone had AP testing, finals preparations, it was the last crunch…it was chaotic. Students parked on the grass, double parked on the street, and even blocked off the loop in the parking lot. We could have been cited. We were forced to issue an ultimatum: park legally, or no permit.”

The students’ rampant violation of the parking policy provoked Dean Michael Valmonte to clarify and enforce old and new rules about student parking. The form largely remains the same except for an added clause regarding punishment of parking policy violators. The updates clarify where the vehicles may park and state the punishment given to violators of the form. Students who park illegally will receive a Saturday school.

“We can’t risk the lives of our students to secure parking for them, so we had to make sure the rules are known,” says Kardosh.

Part of the madness surrounding permit applications this year stems from Dean Michael Valmonte’s changes to the parking registration form.

Kardosh says “We wanted to show the new form is to be taken seriously, and that we will not hesitate to revoke a student’s permit if they violate the new rules.”

This year’s form also requires a signature from the student’s parents and Valmonte.

“In the past, students’ parents have come in and complained about a student getting in trouble for parking, so we wanted to make sure the parents know what rules students need to follow,” says Kardosh.

Mahood says, “Our situation is not ideal, however, the policies we have make the best of our lack of space. It’s a huge issue that we’re still trying to solve.”