Cath Lei

Eight parking spaces in the senior parking lot are now reserved for staff members.

Eight spots.

That’s how many parking spaces in the senior parking lot were converted to staff parking spots.

According to Principal Ralph Crame, the reason for this change was to reserve parking for a new development coming to Carlmont.

“It was a decision made by the administration to provide parking spaces for the employees of the new daycare center that will be opening March 1. We surveyed the student parking lots all over campus, and it was determined that there are a lot of empty student parking spaces in the Scots’ gym area. The permit sold for the senior lot is also good for the student parking at the Scots’ gym,” Crame said.

Despite the fact that these spots were reserved for a new daycare center, many seniors who typically park in the senior parking lot have experienced new challenges trying to find spaces.

Nate Godwin, a senior, parks in the senior parking lot every day before school. Since the implementation of this change, he has been frustrated by the lack of spaces.

“I’m annoyed that administration just took the spots without telling the students, or at least I saw nothing, so they did a poor job communicating. It makes me angry because I bought a pass for one of the spots, but now they’ve taken away some. Essentially, I feel lied to,” Godwin said.

Other students who park in the senior parking lot do not have strong opinions about this change.

Maddy Li, a senior, said, “The change doesn’t affect me very much because I tend to arrive at school 20 to 30 minutes early, so I usually have plenty of spaces available. However, when I ran late earlier this week, I noticed that the parking lot was a lot more crowded than usual.”

Although eight spaces in the senior parking lot are reserved for staff parking, only four spots were lost to students.

Crame said, “We converted eight spaces to staff but when we first sold the permits, there was a dumpster taking up four parking spaces. In actuality, it was only a loss of four spaces.”

If seniors are unable to find parking in the senior parking lot, there are other areas around campus open for students to park.

Connor Lin

Katie Gray, a senior, drives to school every day and parks on Club Drive.

“I park on Club Drive to avoid all of the traffic that the school parking lots create. I’m always able to find a spot there,” Gray said.

Since this change is fairly new, students have not felt the full effects of this change.

“While I personally don’t have much of a problem with the new changes, it seems that there aren’t enough parking spots as it is. To take away more parking spots is counterintuitive, so I’m not very happy with the change. I haven’t heard anyone complain about it too much, but taking away a good portion of parking spaces in an already relatively small lot is going to have consequences,” Li said.