Senior parking issues on the rise
Scroll down to see student reactions on senior parking
Seniors have been frustrated over parking at Pascack Valley as there are 82 student spots and over 200 seniors. Assistant Principal Christine Pollinger said they try to give everyone their first choice of parking and make it as fair as possible.
Starting in the 2021-22 school year a change was implemented regarding student parking. Instead of students parking in an assigned spot, they were able to park anywhere in the student parking lot.
“We had problems in the past with people parking in other people’s spots,” Pascack Valley Assistant Principal Christine Pollinger said. “It would create a lot of time in the morning where we would have to call students out of class, have them move their car, or if the student didn’t report it, and they just parked in somebody else’s spot, it caused a domino effect.”
However, the change caused more parking issues. Pollinger spoke with the student council, and they decided to go back to assigned spots on Monday, April 25.
“Kids figured out that it’s easier to park illegally without being caught when there’s no assigned spot,” Pollinger said. “It really kind of came to a head in session three, and I asked [the senior] class president and the vice president what their solution would be to solve the problem. They suggested going back to assigned parking to identify who’s parking illegally.”
There are consequences for parking without a sticker at the school, according to Pollinger.
“We’ll give people warnings and have them move their car,” Pollinger said. “In the past, we’ve called the Hillsdale Police Department, or the Hillsdale Police Department has enabled our [Special Law Enforcement Officer] officers to provide parking tickets.”
To get a parking sticker, seniors have to fill out a form prior to the beginning of the year with their car information and choice of session. Students are guaranteed one session.
“There are 82 spots so [Secretary Jamie Taylor and I] start filling it up with the first choices,” Pollinger said. “If there are people who have a second or third choice that goes into the lottery and we use a randomized program on the computer that generates the names, and then we just kind of fill in from there.”
Pollinger said there is a probability of getting more than one session of parking. For example, more students chose session two or three because it is colder, so there are fewer lottery spots available. According to Pollinger, they try to give everyone their first choice and have been successful in doing so this year.
Noah Silver is a senior who has been part of The Valley Echo since his freshman year and has written multiple articles, including one that was in the Pascack...
