Picture this: It’s the beginning of your senior year, and you got your license this past summer and are looking forward to finally being able to drive yourself to school. You get behind the wheel and go to school, but then you realize something: you have nowhere to park!
It is no secret that parking at Alexandria City High School has been a complicated situation in recent years. Both staff and students are facing issues when it comes to parking: students suffer from a lack of convenient parking spots and often resort to parking in the teacher lot, leading to teachers being frustrated that students are taking their spots.
Many students say they must resort to either parking in the teacher parking lot or parking away from the King Street campus, while other students claim that there are no available parking spots at the Minnie Howard campus. This means they have to park at the KS campus then take a shuttle to MH. When asked in an anonymous survey, some students claimed that they had to park on side streets which has caused a fuss with neighbors resulting in parking enforcement ticketing unpermitted vehicles.
For students who drive their cars to school, the only permitted place to park is the Chinquapin Circle. In order for a student to park at Chinquapin, they need to meet the following extensive criteria: fill out and submit a parking application form (2024-2025), pre-purchase a parking permit ($120 per school year), and provide a current, valid DMV driver’s license at pick-up. Students are only allowed to park in certain spots within Chinquapin, as shown in the image below.
Theogony performed an anonymous survey that asked students if parking issues have made them late to class. Sixty-four percent of respondents claimed that they have been late to class because of parking trouble. This suggests that parking is an issue that is affecting students’ attendance as well as their ability to get to class on time, potentially missing important instructional material. Additionally, 95 percent of respondents said that there are not enough spots available for students and staff, and 100 percent of respondents believe parking should be more available at ACHS.
Several staff members at ACHS have complained that students are taking their spots in the staff lot, especially at the KS campus. Some teachers even claim that their cars were hit by inexperienced student drivers.
“I don’t like how students are taking advantage of a system meant for teachers,” said speech-language therapist Jessica Cerovich.
She also shared a personal experience: “I was almost hit by a car with a student behind the wheel while walking down the ramp.” Cerovich also said that there are many open spots in the staff lot which could be a reason why many students are parking there even though they are not supposed to. The lack of permitted spots for students has clearly led to dissatisfaction on both the staff and student ends.
One student driver made it clear in the open-ended response section of Theogony’s form that some students at ACHS don’t have any other option of getting to school other than driving themselves. For students who are unable to obtain a Chinquapin permit, there are no other parking options unless they want to risk getting a ticket for parking in a neighborhood or at Bradlee Shopping Center.
An anonymous student who regularly parked in the teacher lot said he only did it because “it was [his] only viable option.”
“I wasn’t able to get a Chinquapin pass, and I didn’t want to illegally park in a neighborhood because parking enforcement tends to swarm those areas,” he said.
The student said that he was always aware of the risk of getting in trouble for parking in the teacher lot, but that he’d never face actual punishment beyond “the occasional stink eye from teachers.”
According to the student, the “pros outweigh the cons” when it comes to students parking in the teacher lot. “I got to class on time consistently, I didn’t have to walk a mile to get to the campus, and leaving school was much easier,” he said.
It is clear that students are in need of more convenient places to park beyond Chinquapin Circle, which costs money and has limited space. In their survey responses, many suggested that ACHS should create new lots designated for students, one at Minnie Howard and one at King Street. Doing this would alleviate some of the frustration teachers have towards students taking their parking spots, as well as satisfy the students by providing them with a convenient place to park. Cerovich also suggested a system where certain students would be permitted to park in the teacher lot based on a system of behavior and academic success.
A feasible solution will require cooperation from both students and staff to make parking both controlled and available. Both students and staff will have to deal with this daily struggle of securing a parking space before the school day begins until changes in parking are made.
