At the beginning of every school year comes a list of items that most students need throughout the year: Pencils, folders, and maybe even a new backpack. For many upperclassmen, one of those back-to-school items is a parking pass. 

That thin piece of plastic that hangs in your rearview mirror allows you to park at the school without getting a ticket, as long as you’re parked in the correct spot. But are there any flaws that current parking pass systems have? Should kids have to pay $85 for a parking space on the hill, while students who have a parking space in the front lot pay the same price? Is the better spot in the morning worth the struggle? 

Bookstore receptionist/student account specialist, Mary Robinson, has worked at Parkway South for 7 years. Robinson said every parking spot is priced the same, at $85 for the year or $42.50 per semester, which is not set by the school, but rather by the Parkway School District. Robinson said the price set by the district has neither been marked up or down since she started working at South. 

Robinson said she thinks the parking pass cost is an appropriate price. Because it’s not required to drive to school.

“Parking is a privilege, not a right,” Robinson said. 

However, Robinson said she can see the standpoint of a student who thinks it’s unfair to have to pay the same amount of money regardless of the space. She said the prices have to be $85 due to the fixed price set by the district. Or in other words, she said the district doesn’t see a map of the school to decide how much each spot is, but prices the parking spaces equally.

Between the 379 students who park at South, most students park either in the Senior Lot in front of the school or the South Lot. 

Junior Maggie Biermann said she likes her parking spot, which is closer to the stadium, because she can get out of the lot faster at the end of the day. Biermann said she made her purchase of her pass on the third day of its availability, which allowed her to gain a pass to the Junior Lot. Biermann said she thinks every space should cost the same amount. 

“I do think that every space should be $85 because that’s just how it works, and it would be unfair if I paid more than someone who’s only a few minutes further from me,” she said. 

Even though most students get to park in the two student lots, some students are a little bit late to the punch and end up getting a spot. Junior Carson Hults has a parking spot on the hill towards the right of the stadium, and unlike Biermann, Hults has a less positive perspective on his parking spot. 

Hults said that he bought his pass a few days after the school year started, after the student lots were already filled up. Hults said he thinks student parking should be parking shouldn’t be a privilege but rather a right. Hults also believes that the $85 price tag is way too much and says that the price should be lowered for the whole year. 

“I think that $85 is way too much, and the prices should at most be $50 for the whole year,” he said 

Hults said he believes that the prices should be the same for every spot, since we are all going to the same place.

With the system that South has for the parking pass, some people will break the rules, and with that, we need an enforcer to enforce the system that we have. South’s administrative assistant, Andy Lane, has access to all records of vehicles and who owns them. If students have a problem involving parking, they should talk to her. 

Lane first wanted to explain the first big question, that being why the prices are set at $85, and not $60 or $50. Lane spoke about how all the money earned through parking passes is reinvested in the school to help maintain the parking lots in good condition, cover maintenance and upkeep costs, and support upcoming dances. 

Lane also talked about prices at different spots. She said that a lot of students who are athletes request to be on the hill due to outside sports and easy access between the stadium and the car. 

“I think they should pay the same because students on the hill are athletes and prefer to be on the hill,” she said.