Although there appears to be no immediate solution to the student parking predicament, school administrators and local officials are hopeful for the future of parking spot availability.
Parking Attendant Billy Jeter. Photo By Noah Zuares/Staff
As it stands right now, no students may park at school. This has not hindered students from resorting to parking spots at neighboring houses, Suburban Square, Main Line Reform Temple and two hour parking.
“A lot of my friends pay neighbors a certain amount a month, $10 or more, to park in neighbors’ driveways,” said junior Viviana Pernot.
For those with no such neighboring connections, two hour parking, kids will argue, seems like the only logical option for their needs since no spots are available to park in for the duration of the school day.
“The problem is, two hour parking is going off campus and Lower Merion is a closed campus. Of course we know kids are doing this ‘street swapping.’ But we must forbid it for liability reasons,” said Assistant Principal Scott Kilpatrick. “If Johnny and Susie get hit crossing the street because they went to move their cars, not only are Johnny and Susie’s parents going to be asking us why the school allowed them to be out alone in the middle of the school day, but the District could get sued for huge amounts of money.”
The “closed campus” has not prevented students from moving their cars during school hours. And despite the administration’s threats of losing campus privileges, getting towed, and getting seriously reprimanded, some students are not deterred from parking in the teacher lot. In fact, many kids complain that they see dozens of empty spaces open every day.
Some students question if cars actually get towed for parking in the lot. The answer to that lies in the commitment of Dennis Violetti, LM parking lot attendant. As many as six times per day he surveys the entire lot, checking license plate numbers and looking for the approved parking lot stickers on the back of the vehicles. The first violation results in placing those notoriously bright orange stickers on the backs of cars, and the second violation ends with Main Line Hooker Service, the company the district uses to tow cars, removing the vehicle and a fine of $200 on the car’s owner. Violetti reported that this year alone the school has towed six illegally parked cars in the teacher parking lot; three of the six were current students’.
“Around Halloween I had my car towed from the lot. Although the administration was helpful in getting my car back, it was a huge waste of time and money, seeing how my car wasn’t causing any problems being parked there,” said senior Elizabeth Moosburner.
“I think that there should still be the opportunity for students with a lot of school activities to have a raffle to park in those empty spaces while also leaving a few for visitors…it doesn’t seem that difficult to do,” said senior Courtney Cines.
“The problem is, for example, today there are only 11 spots open in the whole lot. Different days of school construction take different number of workers,” explained Violetti. “When the plumbers, electricians, painters and carpenters come there will be a lot more spots necessary than when just the foundation builders are working. It changes every day, so if we allowed thirty kids to have spots in the lot—there just wouldn’t be enough.”
According to James Lill, Project Manager for the new high schools, there are currently 437 spots in the school lot and 193 for construction workers.
Many ask why we aren’t given student parking permits. Didn’t we used to have them? The answer is yes; for three years there were 40 spaces allotted to students, given on a needs-basis.
Student Government faculty sponsor Lynn Freeland, who was actively involved in the process that granted students township parking permits explained, “Kids had to apply for the spots. For example, if you said you had a job, you were required to write down the job, the employer and the employer’s phone number on your application. If you requested a spot for family issues, they would be investigated for legitimacy. Then of course there were other cases. For instance there was one girl who was a figure skater who needed a spot because she had to drive to Delaware at lunch every day to advance her future career.”
According to Freeland, the student government officers worked tirelessly for months to set up the permit-parking program for those students.
“They had countless meetings with neighbors, sent out flyers and mailings, and even made appearances on Channel 6 to appeal to the community,” said Freeland. “In the end, the neighbors agreed to the students’ request because they decided it was better to know who was parking on their streets than to have random, unknown drivers stationed in front of their houses.”
The spaces were scattered around the neighborhood and each student was given a non-transferrable sticker to place on their car. Kids were not allowed to lend their sticker to a friend even if they did not need it that day. The Lower Merion Police Department distributed the stickers to each permit recipient, who had to be able to present a license and insurance card.
“Former Principal Piperato worked with Township Commissioner Cheryl Gelber to arrange the parking permit program,” said Lill. “When Mr. Hughes approached the Commissioner, she did not want to continue the program and impose on the community because they already were burdened enough by school construction.”
Commissioner Cheryl Gelber confirmed her worries for the surrounded community. “Over time kids lost commitment. Neighbors were tired of their neighborhoods trashed by the students kids would go out to lunch and leave their trash in the streets. I just hate the thought of putting any more pressure on these neighbors because they are dealing with noise, dust and storm runoff. They are living in a difficult situation. They are given no choice.”
Gelber does feel that things will be entirely different when the new schools open up.
“There won’t be this half-enforced closed campus issue anymore,” said Gelber. In the new school, after 8:00 a. m. the doors will be automatically locked and the only way to regain access will be to buzz yourself in through the main entrance. If students need to leave the building during the day they will have to get a pass, and show that pass in order to be buzzed in again.”
Student parking is guaranteed when the new schools open up. According to Lill, the student parking lot will most likely be ready by September 2011. There will be an estimated 90 parking spots. At Harriton’s new school there are 300 spaces. The exact number of spots LM will have depends on the outcome of the redistricting.
The District, currently involved in litigation, hopes to park up to 20 buses at the Croyle Site, located in Belmont Hills. Neighbors have responded negatively to the idea, and if the District loses the case, some of the buses will have to be parked at the new LM High School. Commissioner Gelber confirmed, “For every bus they have to bring back to Lower Merion, we lose three student parking spots. So if five buses have to come back, there will be 75 student spots available instead of 90. It’s a difficult problem and I’m fighting like hell for them.”
Despite the change in transportation methods, there seems to be no change in extra-curricular scheduling to accommodate this. Clubs like Yearbook, National Honor Society, SADD and various sports teams have all had mandatory meetings/practices beginning at 7 a.m. or earlier. Players and The Merionite often hold meetings well past 6 p.m. This means that unless someone lives in close walking distance of the school, the burden for most part falls on the parents to transport their child.
“Perhaps we have to rethink making these meetings mandatory if it’s becoming too hard on parents to get to school,” said Principal Sean Hughes.
“I think the school may have to look at either an earlier bus or a second late bus or maybe they have to talk to the athletic coaches and club advisors and say, ‘You know we know you want to have a longer practice but these kids have to take the bus,’” said Gelber.
The current system is set to stay as it is until the opening of the new schools. As Gelber assures, “We’re confident the current problems will lessen considerably when the construction ends.”
Rachel Cohen
Class of 2010
