Did you know the average American spends 17 hours per year searching for a parking spot? As the upcoming classes gradually increase in size, the parking lot becomes crazier. Many students are forced to park far away from the school, in the gravel, due to a limited quantity of spots. Pull in, to see what students think about this problem, and what you can do to find a spot.
With less than 200 parking spots and almost 400 students at Rock Creek High School, nearly half of the driving students are pushed to park in the gravel lot, or even in other lots.
“I’ve had to get to school earlier just to find a parking spot, and if I don’t get here early enough, I have to park in the middle school” sophomore Madelyn Leibsch said. Many students who arrive late to school, whether it be from an appointment, missed alarm, or even running home to grab something, return to the school to find their spot has been taken.
“I think we should find a grant or something to add more concrete to the gravel for more spots that would be nice” Leibsch said. Expanding, or even updating Rock Creek High School’s parking lot does seem to be on a lot of students’ minds.
In response to questions about updating the parking lot, Rock Creek Facilities Director Tim Churchman said, “Currently the architectural firm HTK Architects, are evaluating our current facilities throughout the school district, parking and traffic flow are two of the issues being addressed.” demonstrating not only is this issue a concern that is on the minds of students but also on the minds of administration.
While there is space to park in the gravel lot, Churchman does recognize it is not an ideal situation. “Parking for events can be tricky because the gravel parking lot does not have set parking spaces which can lead to cars parking in an irregular and inefficient manner” Churchman said.
Although HTK Architects were hired around a year ago, more time was needed before deciding on the best way to fix the issue.
“A site study needs to be conducted for our campus in order to determine the “ideal” parking configuration and capacity” Churchman said. Within the year they were hired, it seems the firm was unable to perform a site study, but they have given vague suggestions towards the lot.
“Parking is definitely an issue as the school population grows. My concerns are that we have enough parking spaces for everyone to park safely” Churchman said. Looking at HTK Architects’ Facilities Assessment, they state the high school parking lot is in good condition, but the entry road gets very congested.
“A second site entry should be an extremely high priority item” HTK Architects states. Even though the firm highly suggests a second high school entry should be considered, the parking lot and road were not listed in the chosen issues to be addressed. While the assessment does state a site entry should be high priority, they do not write about a parking capacity examination of either high school lot. There is not even a brief acknowledgement in the assessment of the gravel parking lot.
This facilities assessment is listed under the “Facilities Plan” tab on the USD 323 District Website. You can also access the pdf through the following link: https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/3455/RCS/4358239/HTK_Facility_Assessment.pdf
