School administration introduced a new process for student parking pass assignments this year.

The MHS school website explains that the process is supposed to “eliminate conflicts with athletic practices, club events, and most vacations, reduce long lines, and reduce student stress during final exam periods.”

During past school years, parking passes for terms 2, 3 and 4 were bought and received as soon as the school day ended on the days of finals. Some students were released from their exams early in order to get in line while others found themselves stuck waiting for as long as four hours to be able to park at school the next day if they could not leave their last final early.

“Getting a parking pass last year was difficult because I couldn’t focus on my actual tests during that time,” said Kayla Norris, senior.

This new process aimed to eliminate any long lines and timing conflicts.

“We’ve had no lines, so everybody who came in was pretty much helped and [then they] were out the door; they weren’t here more than twenty minutes at most,” said Samantha Smigielski, dean of students. “Some people had to wait four hours in the past, to now twenty minutes, [which] was a huge plus.”

Despite these positives,, some students had complaints about the new process.

“I didn’t like [the lottery] because if you really needed the pass for a sport or if you live far away, you [are not guaranteed] to get a pass because of the lottery,” explained Stephan Hatchett, junior.

This was a common complaint among juniors because this year instead of first-come, first-serve, seniors received priority.  

Other complaints included 15-year-olds not being able to get parking passes until they are 16.

Something the school wants to improve within the next year is making it more clear on the applications that the students who are not 16 yet cannot get their passes until they are 16.

“We really need to make it clear that, unfortunately, for that first round, you need to have your license. Second round we’re able to be a bit more lenient because everybody has already had a chance who hit the initial criteria,”Smigielski said.

During the second round (is this second round at the semester?), students who still have not turned 16 or have yet to get their licenses have the opportunity to be put in the drawing. A parking pass can be placed on hold in the dean’s office until the day they get their licenses.

Additionally, some seniors and juniors did not like needing the car present in order to purchase.

Nichole Babiez, junior, said that her car was in the shop the day that the passes were to be picked up, so she was not allowed to pick it up. This required her to come back another day when she had her car

These problems aren’t specific to this year’s lottery process; students encountered these problems with the previous process, too. However, some students said they hoped this new process would have addressed these issues as well.

Other students, though, had a good experience with the lottery and want to continue using this process in the upcoming years.

“[I liked] that it was easier to get [the parking pass] this year because of the raffle,” said Babiez, who had positive thoughts on the lottery, despite the car shop issue, “[Also], having the option to get the term pass or the year pass [was a positive] because I didn’t think that was an option.”

Also, since seniors had priority, those who remembered to put their names in the lottery had virtually no issues at all, since they were granted a parking pass before any juniors were.

In order to participate in the drawing, students had to come to the school during the month of July to enter their ID number into the lottery, and then their ID numbers were pulled around the week before school. The winning ID numbers were posted on the school website.

The next drawing will be for a limited amount of Term 2 Parking Passes that are available. Watch for an email from the school, call the dean’s office, or go to d120.org for more information.