At PIHS, there are three parking lots. A student favorite is “Barton,” so named because of the street name. Most juniors and seniors who have their licenses and park there. Recently, members of our school’s largest class, the sophomores, have started getting their licenses. Most of them have also decided to park on Barton, as well. Complaints have been made and word has spread. Obviously not everyone can park in that one lot. 

Student Council met to discuss this issue. They believe that there should be color coded spots: seniors get first pick, then juniors, then the sophomores. This way “upperclassman privilege” is present. Though it may upset sophomores, seniors who have parked there for two years are starting to get pushed out. According to Bob Gagnon, Operations Supervisor, there are 50 parking spaces at Barton, Griffin has 40, the upper lot, also known as “PIR,” has 54. 

“The Student Council is working hard right now to try and arrange a parking policy that works for everyone,” Student Council president Morgan House ’24 said. “As of right now, our parking lots are incredibly crowded. The Student Council has received a lot of complaints about this, and it is our job to address them.”

House described a proposed plan. This new plan would allot passes to ensure that we only have as many parkers as we do spots. The first choice for parking passes would go to upperclassmen, as they have spent the most time here (think upperclassmen privilege). “As of right now this plan is still in the works, so nothing is set in stone yet,” House said. The plan was proposed January 17, and now it’s in the hands of the administration. 

After surveying the sophomore, junior and senior classes, out of the 71 students who responded, 82% of them drive to school everyday. Barton is the preferred lot by 52% compared to Griffin (31%) and the upper lot (16%). Sixty-five percent of these drivers stated they think there should be an organized way of parking. Twenty-five percent of them said it doesn’t bother them, and the rest responded “maybe.” 

In the comments of this survey, many students mentioned moving sophomores to another lot, or upperclassmen privilege. “Make sophomores park in Griffin or P.I.R. (upper lot).” 

Three students said word for word, “Seniors and juniors should have priority parking.” 

Not every driver sees an assigned parking policy as fair. “No, it’s probably not fair,” McKayla Guerrette ’26 said. “I think it’s first come, first serve. You park where you park, and it’s not really a huge deal if you don’t make it one.”

The newer drivers plus the arrival of snow banks in the parking lots has tensions running higher. “Sophomores have three more years to drive and park at school, whereas it’s a different story for seniors,” Fiona Wu ’25 said. “Sophomores just getting their licenses are pretty bad parkers and park in spaces where other cars cannot get around and it makes the parking lots so chaotic.”