Jan. 5 marks the last day Lafayette will be selling parking passes. The school’s 694 student parking spaces are filling up fast and Thursday lunch shifts will be the last chances to obtain one.
With approximately 1,100 eligible drivers at Lafayette, 400 students will be out of luck if they are trying to receive a parking space.
At the beginning of the year, students had the option of either buying a semester parking pass or a year long pass. Those who decided upon the $90 semester passes were forced to renew their passes for an additional $90, though there was no guarantee that they would be given the same spot.
Also, sophomore students who may have turned 16 years old and gotten their licenses place additional pressure upon spot availability.
As a result, after two days of selling passes during each lunch, 17 students have already been placed on the wait list.
Assistant Principal Matt Dieckhaus said it is not likely that many of the students on the wait list will be able to get a spot. The only way a student on the wait list will be able to receive a parking space is if another student refunds their money and gives up their space.
student refunds their money and gives up their space.
Sophomore Michael Kanan said, “I consider myself lucky to not be on the waiting list, especially since I was on there all last semester and never got a spot.”
Kanan was one of the first in line to get his parking pass for second semester, making sure he wouldn’t end up on the wait list once again.
In recent experience with parking spaces, only about 2-5 people on the wait list end up receiving a parking space. Therefore, the odds are not good for the remaining eligible drivers who have not purchased their space yet.
Junior Mallory Wesley commented that she did not like the way they were handling the selling of parking passes this semester.
She said, “I don’t like that when you renew your parking pass, you can’t just get your old [spot] back.”
The pass she had bought last semester was already sold when she got around to purchasing her second semester pass.
