I am a senior here at Pasco high school. Ever since my junior year I have had many problems with leaving the student parking lot after school. My concerns are for the students who have after school curriculars or work after school. I feel like there could possibly be a better system for the student parking lot and I would like to share maybe one or two ideas that will maybe better the student parking lot situation at the end of the day. I have also asked many people before or have brought up problems that they might have with the student parking lot and many of them said the same things. They said that sometimes they have to sit in there car for 10-15 mins before they actually leave the parking lot and that upsets them because they aren’t able to reach their after school activities on time.

Lets dive more into how the end of the day looks when trying to leave the student parking lot. Me, for example. I am all the way out in the portables during 6th period and it takes me about 3 minutes to walk to my car so I get into my car at around 2:40 at the earliest. The latest I get to my car is around  2:43 if the gates next to the portables are closed because I find that to be a faster way then getting into a hallway with a bunch of students all going the same way where it gets crammed and people are pushing each other to leave the school. Now there are some days where I do leave the parking lot pretty decently on time, but most of the time its on Thursdays when we get out of school earlier. But even then, sometimes I don’t leave it until after 2 o’clock. However, every other day is a struggle getting out of it.

Most of the students that I know who work start work right after school, like me. Which means we have to be to work at 3:00. So I think that if the school starts a different system for the parking lot, it would make it a lot easier for students to be on time to where they need to be after school. I think 2 of the biggest factors are parents who pick up their students and go through the student parking lot and the private elementary school that also gets out around the same time that Pasco does. So, in this case, there is a lot more traffic when getting out which results in the parking lot getting backed up.

In order to make sure that students who need to leave right after school to get where they need to be on time get to their destination, the school can ensure a better end of the day routine. Instead of having the parents who are doing pickup go through the first two rows of the student parking lot, Instead we can make it so that the parents only go through one row. Now, they are still going through the student parking lot but I have noticed that most students who drive, park in the first two rows of the student parking lot. So, in my opinion, it would just make sense for parents to go through only one row rather than all three of them and backing up students who are trying to leave on time.

That is one Idea. Another idea, if possible, is that we could relocate the students who do get picked up by their parents to a different location of the school. If possible, we could relocate them to the other side of the school where parents will still be able to pick up their student and maybe even help themselves out by getting out when they want to instead of having to sit there and wait in the student parking lot for traffic to go down. It really could benefit both the students and the parents if we could possibly have an easier way for everyone to be able to leave on time. In all, I just want to ensure that everyone is happy in the end and can get where they need to be.