With Sequoyah adding a junior class this year, the administration has more student accommodations to consider, including student parking. While there is currently no student parking at Sequoyah’s high school, High School Director Marc Alongi expects off-site student parking to become available in the next year or so.
According to Alongi, student parking will be located a half mile away (in the blue ring on the map) in order to comply with the Neighborhood Church’s conditional use permit (CUP). The CUP requires any Sequoyah student parking to be located at least half of a mile away from the school, and also prohibits students “from driving to school” and parking “on-site, or in the surrounding residential neighborhood.“
On January 18th, the administration sent tenth and eleventh grade families a survey asking them about their desires for student parking. The survey asked if students would “use student parking located .5 to .9 miles away from campus.” A van ride from the parking lot to the school, says the survey, may be provided by the school. Junior Seth Breen questioned questioned the effectiveness of the vans, saying: “What happens if you don’t take the shuttle? What if you are late and have to walk to school? Are there even gonna be shuttles available?” When asked about the details for the shuttle, Alongi said that the administration has no plans yet. The school refused to release the results of the survey upon The Barefoot Times’ request.
Three juniors, Emery Mann, Breen, and Sophie Root-Stevens, expressed their feelings on student parking and all stated they are in need of it and are eager to be able to drive to school. Alongi’s main concern lies with following the CUP requirements and the matter of payment for parking, which he said families would need to pay for. Mann stated she is ready for student parking and would be willing to pay for parking. Others agreed: Stevens and Breen both said that if paying for parking is what is necessary to be able to drive to school, they will do so.
Students’ main concern about what the school has revealed about student parking is what they would really be paying for. Breen said he does not want to “pay blindly” and needs to know what he is paying for. Mann agreed, but also questioned why students have to pay in the first place. Mann said she feels strongly about student parking, saying, “I feel that as the first graduating class, we have gotten our hopes up many times with student parking and it would be nice to see it in the next two years.”
