For every normal school year the parking pass to be able to park on school property is $25, but this isn’t a normal school year. Due to the coronavirus Lakeview High School has decided to make our on campus schedule only two days a week. During those two days of the week students are on school grounds they are only there for a solid four hour day instead of the regular seven and a half our days. Overall, students aren’t parking in the school parking lot near as much as normal, besides the teachers.

I had to ask Mr. Baker to back myself up: “No, I didn’t have to pay for a parking pass for the school year.”

For this school year teachers are required to be at the school for their normal amount of hours, taking up a very large amount more of time than students. So why don’t teachers have to pay for a parking pass, but students who go to a public high school do?

I asked Daniel Franko what they thought about this situation and they said: “I think it is pretty unfair that only students have to pay for a parking pass. We are all here for the same reason so that really doesn’t make sense… As for the $25 parking pass, I think it should have been less with everything going on this year. For only coming to school for two days a week, $25 is too much. I just feel like since we are here so little and the teachers are really the ones staying a lot more, it would only make sense if they paid for a parking pass as well.”

Every year the amount of money brought in by students paying for parking passes goes into a fund to help take care of the parking lot. For example, the money is put into keeping it plowed and salted in the winter. According to Assistant Principal Michael Detoro, “Lakeview averages about 200 parking passes sold every year, that would be a total of $5,000 coming into the school.”

It would not take nearly that much money to maintain a parking lot during a school year. Lakeview High School could easily take one unusual year like this one and lower the cost of the parking pass.

After doing some quick math, students are using the parking lot during the school day 75% less than they would during a normal school year. In that case why are students still paying full price for a parking pass?

Yes, the school gets the blacktop seal coated every year, but according to Google, it only cost on the national average 19 cents a square foot. With the size of our parking lot and the areas they get seal coated it would not cost the school $2,500 to do. Also, to maintain the parking lot during the winter it costs on average $60 for one ton of salt, which is a lot of salt. Overall, the expenses of the parking lot is a lot lower than how much they get in with the parking passes and definitely have money saved up throughout the years for a solid savings.

This goes to show how Lakeview High School does not need to be charging students so much for a parking pass and how it isn’t the easiest for some students to spend that much on a piece of plastic. If Lakeview High School is going to charge that much for students to park at a public school they should lower the cost and charge everyone who parks in the parking lot.