Of all the awful changes Nashoba has made this past year, the student lot crackdown has been by far the worst. Even worse than covering up old murals and painting new ones just for NEASC accreditation. Alright, maybe not that bad. I don’t personally drive to school since I don’t have a car, but I have heard friends and classmates who do drive themselves complaining. I agree with everything I’ve heard.

Our parking passes are crazy expensive! I have friends at Hudson High who nearly had a heart attack when I told them what a Nashoba student has to pay in order to park. While we fork over $70 for a parking pass, Hudson High juniors pay $5 and the seniors get to park for free. It’s not like our money is used to improve our parking lot, that’s been made pretty clear. If our money was used to pay for the upkeeping of our lot, we would have enough parking spaces for everyone who bought a pass.

The space has been an issue all year, it’s ridiculous. The worst part is, it’s not that hard to fix. I don’t know how many spots we have in the student lot, but let’s pretend we have 175 spaces. If we have 175 spaces, how many passes should be sold? I’ll give you a hint, the answer is not greater than 175. Parking passes are being over sold to students. Some students have gone as far as parking in handicapped spots, which honestly I don’t see a problem with. I’ve never seen one car with a handicap sticker parked in those spaces, during school hours, which if we think about it, is perfectly logical. How many kids who are handicapped will be driving themselves to school? My guess is, not many.

One more change that should be made to the parking “system”, if we can call it that, is that over the summer, for a two week window, there should be an online sign up for a parking pass open to upcoming seniors ONLY. After that window of time has closed THEN signups for whatever is left (if 160 have been sold, there should only be 15 left) can be opened on a first come first serve basis to any junior or any senior who did not sign up during that two week window. I really don’t think the changes are hard to make, I just think Nashoba is unwilling to make them.