Dude, Where Do I Park My Car?

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Elizabeth Cheadle, Staff Writer

Holy Family students are faced with a new challenge as they return for their second semester, and that is the current parking situation. Every morning students arrange to arrive at school no later than 7:40 am, in order to secure themselves a place to park their cars. With 18 new students being welcomed to Holy Family, and more and more sophomores starting to get their licenses, parking spaces are becoming more sparse by the day. 

Senior Alexandra Vela passionately states, “They made an announcement saying attendance has never been higher at Holy Family, and as attendance is growing, they are shutting down parking spaces! How are they going to fix this?”

Vela asks what every current student is wondering- when are we going to get more parking? At most public schools in Colorado, every student has an assigned parking space, which they are required to park in every day, in order to make sure that issues like this never happen. We are all happy about the fact that the Holy Family student body is expanding, but the simple necessity of parking has to be met for students.

Additionally, the construction of our new tennis courts has now taken up practically all of the dirt lot, adding to the struggle for students to claim a spot. The dirt lot already has its own risks- there are deep potholes that could easily damage the underside of your car, rocks that get shot up and can leave scratches, and of course getting your car boxed in by other drivers. 

Now, students are lucky if they get a spot in the dirt lot, as the paved parking lot doesn’t have a single space available for anyone who doesn’t show up earlier in the mornings. With this in mind, students who have a study hall first block are faced with a difficult decision- either show up before school starts to secure themselves a spot, or risk showing up to a packed parking lot.

Senior Rachel McGoff explains, “Even though I have a study hall, I come in early because I don’t want to have to fight someone for a parking spot.”

Despite having the opportunity to sleep in, or work on homework at home, McGoff decides to show up early and sit in the parking lot in order to ensure that her car has a place to sit while she is at school. Other students have also made this decision, and are now losing sleep, wasting gas, and misusing their time.

Parking is a need for our student body. Thankfully, our administration has heard our complaints and acted to help this problem. According to our dean, Mr. Galmish, an additional gravel lot is currently being constructed. My only hope is that it will be large enough to accommodate for our expanding school.