In the past few years, Holy Family administration has claimed to have expanded and upgraded the HF parking lot to accommodate the rising number of students at Holy Family High School. While the parking lot may have been recently upgraded, what with a paved parking lot next to the tennis courts and improved lines and overall appearance, there is still one major issue for all drivers at HF.

There are not enough parking spots! It’s that time of year when sophomores are beginning to drive, and there is simply not enough room to harbor the rising amounts of drivers this year.

Now this issue has been argued about for years, countless articles have been written and many complaints have been received, so you might think that when HF administration finally decided to upgrade the parking lot last year, an increase in parking spots would be at the top of the to-do list.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead of providing more parking spots, the new upgrades to the parking lot plus the addition of tennis courts seem to have decreased the number of parking spaces as a whole.

Now, I totally understand that adding tennis courts to our beautiful campus was a wonderful and necessary step in expanding HF extracurriculars and sports programs. However, some other accommodation needs to be made to constitute for the decrease in parking.

Perhaps, another parking lot should be added in front of or behind the softball field, or maybe the extra, unused teacher parking spots should be opened up to the general public.

Either way… we need more parking.

It has become nearly impossible to find a spot in the morning without waking up extra early. What’s more, students with first block study hall, myself included, literally have no place to park. And I’m not talking one or two open spots, there is NOT a single spot available after that first block bell begins to ring. (who ideally should have priority parking)

What’s more, because of tight quarters and a small dose of outrageous driving, the HF parking lot has become a very dangerous place to park. Cars are getting dinged left and right, and I believe that with a little more space or an extra parking lot, some of this danger would subside.

Another solution to the parking issue might be assigned parking, first come first serve style, within each class, starting with seniors at the front of the lot and sophomores at the back. That way, unregistered drivers would have no place to park, and every paying driver would be ensured a spot every morning regardless of their arrival time.

With all these solutions, there is really no excuse for the lack of parking spots at HFHS. Parking is crucial for our student body, and while the increasing number of students at Holy Family is wonderful for the community and the school as a whole, a change really must be made to accommodate our rising numbers.