TOWAMENCIN — After the long wait, parking weary juniors at North Penn High School can finally be assigned a spot beginning on Monday, November 18th.

Prior to the 2019-2020 school year, rising juniors were unable to be issued a parking spot until the second semester. 

A letter sent out to juniors in April 2019, stated that “for the past couple of years rising juniors have been able to apply for and receive parking passes for the following school year. This was a change from past practice and was done because as a whole, student driving had decreased. There were a few years in which many parking spots were still available at the end of the school year.”   

Over the past couple of years, however, students have been requesting a parking spot at an increasing pace. For both the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years, the school was completely out of parking spaces before the school year began. At the same time, many  seniors who had received either their license, a car for their use, or both were unable to secure a parking spot during their senior year because those spots were all claimed. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, juniors were unable to receive a parking spot until the second semester in order to allow for seniors to still obtain a spot after the start of the school year. 

The original policy that was issued in the previous year caused frustrations for rising juniors. 

“I didn’t know what I was gonna do because my mom kept telling me that she can’t pick me up. Nobody was able to pick me up from school, so half the clubs that had events I just couldn’t go to because my mom was like ‘I just physically can’t leave work’ and there aren’t late buses every day, and I just can’t keep asking people for rides,” said North Penn Junior Alison Kulak.

“I’ve had my license since August 27th, and the policy was extremely annoying for me because I live in two different houses—my parents are divorced—and I can’t go to my moms as often, or if my dad is away and I’m staying with her, I can’t [always get the bus], and she has to take me every morning when it would be easier for me to take myself. Also, I have so many after school activities that it’s really hard for my dad to pick me up. I’m here like every day after except Friday, and my clubs end so early that he can’t get a full day of work in,” added North Penn Junior Dani Staber.

“As a rising junior, you look forward to being able to drive to and from school. The fact that this year we were unfortunate enough to be deprived of that privilege was upsetting, but I wouldn’t say it affected my life that much. I usually take the bus or have my parents drive me to school or pick me up if I have club meetings after school,” said a student who wishes to remain anonymous.

For many students, this has lead them to find other ways to get to school.

“I park across the street—across the football field—in the neighborhood with consent. It takes like 10 minutes to walk to school. I have to leave a lot earlier because I have to go really far out of my way to get to school, and I also have to account for the time I have to walk,” said Kulak.

On November 11th, juniors were sent out an email that revised the old policy. Instead of waiting until the second semester, juniors can now receive a parking spot—if they have already submitted their application—as early as November 18th.

The new policy has made many students hopeful in the fact that they will be given a parking spot sooner than what they were previously told.

“Having a parking spot would be nice because I would be able to leave my house a lot later, and I also don’t have to deal with walking for ten minutes in the cold and the rain because it rains quite often. Also for clubs it would be a lot easier to stay after if I didn’t have to walk,” Kulak said.

Any junior interested in reserving a parking spot and who has not completed/submitted the required application available in your Home Office D103 should do so as soon as possible as there are currently 120 parking spots still available. Parking spots will be assigned in the order in which they were received, and the applicant must be clear of obligations.

If there are any questions or concerns, please contact Ms. Scott (Home Office K025) at [email protected] or (215) 853-1504.