At Nashoba Regional High School parking passes are prized possessions among junior and senior students. Our school rents out “approximately 250 passes” each year making a profit of “70 dollars for a full year and 35 dollars after semester 1.” Nashoba lacks an adequate number of parking passes to fulfill the student bodies needs and after the brutal winter of 2015, parking room has become even more limited.

At Nashoba, you can purchase a parking pass once you have received your license. According to the DMV website, in order to pass your license test you must “Be at least 16 years old, Have parental or legal guardian consent, Provide your original birth certificate, Provide your Social Security number, Present a certified copy of a driving record no more than 30 days old, Turn in your out-of-state permit or license, Show a drivers education certificate, and pay the $115 license conversion fee.”

Getting a license is certainly no easy task. I find it hard to comprehend how some students have more trouble getting a parking space at Nashoba than actually getting a license. Juniors with the unfortunate late birthdays have to battle for their spot in the parking lot. When secretary, Mrs. Hilliger, was asked if there were plans to create more parking passes she replied, “eventually… there has been ideas about converting the old tennis court but that is just talk and has not been approved by the superintendent.” I hope for the sake of Nashoba students that this “talk” turns into action.

This past winter has brought down record breaking piles of snow. Naturally, it has been a struggle for our school to handle the massive amounts. Our principal at Nashoba, Dr Parry Graham, writes,  “This is Parry Graham writing with a message about student parking at the high school this week. Because of the volume of snow we have received, the high school parking lots have lost a considerable number of spaces. For this week, we are restricting student parking to only Seniors to ensure that we have a sufficient number of spaces available without creating safety hazards.” in an email to all parents.

All Nashoba students respect Dr. Graham’s decision to keep our school safe. What we don’t respect is the fact that we paid for our parking passes, yet don’t get to put them to use. What is the point of getting our license and parking passes if we can’t use them!?

Dr Graham’s follows up his first email with a plan, “ We will do additional plowing over the February break to get back as many spaces as possible. Thank you for your flexibility as we try to deal with unprecedented amounts of snow, and please apologize to your unhappy Junior student on my behalf!”

When the student body got back from our exciting school breaks, our spirits were crushed by the lack of parking spaces. We received yet another depressing email, “Our crews have been working throughout the February break to clear snow off of roofs and to make parking lots as safe as possible; unfortunately, we are still dealing with an incredible amount of snow, and our parking lots remain very tight. For the foreseeable future, I am asking that all Juniors NOT drive their cars to school unless it is absolutely necessary, and I am asking all Seniors to carpool—no student should be driving to school individually without any passengers.”

Students were outraged by the parking ban. We payed for our license and spaces so why are we getting banned from our own parking lot? I hope that in the near future we get an email stating parking spaces are back to maximum capacity and students can fill the parking lot with happy  faces.