Garnet Valley High School has an extremely low amount of parking spaces. This is highly concerning due to the number of students increasing exponentially. The school will soon have to compensate this issue by constructing new parking lots.
The school currently only provides parking spots to seniors. They also have a raffle where they auction off any leftover parking spaces to juniors. This year, due to the large senior class, there were only 12 spots available to auction off. Over 150 junior students applied to win one of those spots. This leaves 138 students stuck taking the bus, even as upperclassmen. This issue should be resolved to free all juniors from having to suffer on the bus crowded with little children.
This issue also needs to be resolved in regards to the upcoming senior classes. As our community continues to grow, more and more kids are attending Garnet Valley. If the current parking situation is not improved, upcoming seniors will not be able to have parking spots.
Not being able to drive to school causes issues for many people. The bus arrives at an excruciatingly early time in the morning. This early arrival results in lack of sleep because it requires one to wake up earlier. It also results in students missing the bus on many occasions. Student’s parents have to sacrifice going to work on time in order to drop their children off.
Having the opportunity to drive to school is also crucial to any student involved in athletics or clubs. These extracurricular activities require that the students stay after school. At the time the activity is over, many parents are still at work. They would have to leave their job to come pick up their son or daughter at the school; some parents may not even be able to pick their child up for hours. All of these issues that students face every day can be easily solved by simply being able to drive to school.
How does this parking problem get fixed? There are multiple locations around the school that can be used to solve this. The first example is the old tennis courts behind the school. That area is not used for anything due to the new tennis courts that were recently build at a different area. These old courts have no purpose and have an old look to them. It is a great space to construct a new small parking lot. This is a good space because it is repurposing an area instead of tearing down fresh land.
The second location is located across the street from the new tennis courts. In this area there is a large open field with a small house looking office building that is owned by the school right on Smith Bridge road. The large amount of land lies right behind this building. A parking lot can easily be made out of this because it is on school property, and is it big. This area would provide enough parking spaces for the upcoming large classes and give more opportunities for juniors to get a spot. The only downside to creating new parking lots is the cost of construction. This can be helped by charging students a small fee to have a parking spot that would eventually pay out the cost over time. The school’s current parking situation is a rising issue that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
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