Why are students not allowed to park in the parking lot when it’s empty? The parking lot across the street from Cleveland has empty spots during the day but instead, students have to park on the street or in the parking lot behind the school.

When the spots were counted in the parking lot during the day on average there were 34 spots open. The lines in the parking lot are faded and the old lines from two different paint jobs make it very difficult to tell where spots are, especially in a car.

Sean Murray, Cleveland vice principal said, “The school has put in a request to get the lines repainted but it has not been done yet.”

Murray also said the spots are supposed to have numbers that match the stickers that staff members put on their cars. Currently, staff members do not have assigned spots but park in the same spot most days and all staff have stickers to tell which cars are staff cars.
The main reason that students are not allowed to park in the parking lot is that when district members and guests such as guest speakers come, they park in the parking lot. If the school opened the parking lot to students it would fill up, leaving no spots for guests.

While schools are not required to provide parking for students, many students say it would be helpful to open up some spots given the current parking situation for most students who drive to school.

A Cleveland student, senior Peter Bamer, who drives to school said, “I normally park a block away depending on what time I get here.” He normally parks in the neighborhood near Kelly Street. He also says the farthest he has ever parked is “the end of the U.”

The proposed remodel of the school has only mentioned updates to the parking lot and nothing about expanding it for more spots than currently exist.