A gym, the shield, and a science lab were part of the new landscape at Faith Lutheran, but one thing remains: the parking lot struggle.

Everyday is a roll of the dice to see if you can get a parking spot that is relatively near the gym, much less the main high school. We are only in the first three weeks of school, and a crowded parking lot is already a problem according to students and parents. One middle school parent, Beth Barrett, said “I would love to see someone directing cars to pull forward as far as they can at drop off in front of the shield, to make drop off faster.”

As far as upperclassmen are concerned, senior parking is a thing of the past. The seniors used to receive special parking that was closer to the school, and was exclusively reserved for them. It seems as though they have just shuffled the seniors out of their parking lot and added more faculty parking. Kennedy Holthus, senior, said, “I think it’s way too crowded, and seniors should get their senior parking back because the parking lot is insane at all times.” The additional faculty parking spaces seem to be a little unnecessary because we had no more than 20 additional staff members added to the school this year. This doesn’t seem to make an extended faculty parking lot an immediate necessity. Although it is easy to get frustrated with the faculty parking taking over senior parking, they have always reserved half of senior parking lot to faculty in prior years, so them getting the other half of the parking lot isn’t the biggest issue. As the year progresses and more and more sophomores get licensed, the parking lot will become more jammed up after school, which will lead to more accidents.

The parking lot has historically caused issues between everyone in the school (faculty, students, parents, etc.), so the Faith Lutheran News Network decided to investigate last year. Dr. Buuck said, “Based on how many square feet that building is you have to add parking, so we cannot add another building without some additional parking.” According to that quote, there should have been parking added to campus, but no one has noticed any additional parking. This year, Mr. Fogo said, “For our current campus, although it would be quite a hike, we have enough parking because you could park all the way up by the soccer field.” It seems as though there is confusion about parking amongst even the leaders of our school.

Not all parking spots were created equal. For example, If you had to park by the soccer field, there would be no way to make it to the building in under 5 minutes, much less the new classrooms, 112-116, located near the office parking lot. How are students expected to be on time when we are given little time to get from the lot to the classroom? Later in the year, this could lead to a major problem for students when it comes to being prompt, and teachers when it comes to starting class on time.

The students are definitely frustrated. Chad Jones, senior, shared his frustrations, “It takes me ten minutes to park, and I live across the street. Middle school parents almost hit me everyday, making it a real struggle to even get to school.” Although the students seem to be bothered by the parking lot the teachers don’t seem to be as upset. Mr. Cattau had a different feeling about the parking situation, “I get here early enough that I don’t see the students, so I don’t have a problem with them getting in my way. “

For now everyone will have to work together to make it work, and stay alert when parking to avoid accidents. When it comes to tardies, students will just have to calculate extra parking time into their morning routine. Everyone agrees the parking lot is inconvenient, but for now everyone will have to cope with it. As Joel Osteen said, “Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.”