By Nela Sedlarova

Does Batavia High School not want its students to go to class? There has been a long time stressor that is becoming a big problem with BHS: its parking.

Although our school offers a student parking lot, it’s still not enough. The students who park there are charged a $175 fee, as well. There are close to 300 parking spots for students and they are overly priced. Which is $52,500 and all I was able to be told that the money given for those spots are for salting the pavement and plowing the snow which is most definitely not costing $52,500. So where does that money truly go. Students have for years parked on surrounding streets where public parking is offered but that can lead to being parked three streets away. Many students are walking 10 minutes or more to get to school. This may not seem bad, but imagine having to walk that far in terrible weather conditions such as snow or rain. Without a doubt most students end up being covered in rain, snow, or sweat by the time they make it inside the school.

A student who didn’t get a parking spot for this year has had to resort to parking on the streets surrounding the school. He mentioned how the spots fill up very quickly.

“I come at 6:50 am which is over 40 minutes before school starts,” said Charlie Conklin. “A couple of times I had no place to park so I just went home.”

The church near the school who charges students for a parking spot for the year left a big sign saying students may not park there and it is church parking only. I’ve been told that it is $175 to park there, as well.

“We were given a double sided flier awhile back, maybe like a month ago saying that the church is going to have meetings on May 1, 2, and 3.”

“I have had to park illegally the past few days because there are no spots by the time I get to school,” said Stuart Murchie.

There have even been some students who have resorted to parking in the teachers parking lot. My source told me that she was able to park there for a few days before the school left a sticker on each student’s car giving them a warning that they will be towed the next time.

Especially with the church not allowing BHS students to park there currently, so many students have resorted to parking in the staff’s parking lot and instead of allowing the extra parking spaces they have available they use the force of police to not allow students to park there. There constantly open spots that should be put for “sale” for students to park or at least for the juniors who entered the parking lot raffle.

Batavia High School needs to somehow solve this problem by creating more parking spaces in open areas nearby the school. For example Engstrom Park is right next door to the school with lots of open grass that can easily provide 40 parking spots for its students. If this idea was planned through, we could create a fundraiser that students can participate in and get the town’s support to help save up for the construction to take out the grass and add the pavement.