The official student media of Blue Valley Northwest High School

BVNWnews

The official student media of Blue Valley Northwest High School

BVNWnews

The official student media of Blue Valley Northwest High School

BVNWnews

Changes To Parking Permit Policy

BVNW parking permit policy will change for the upcoming school year, SRO Esther Zimmerman said, to allow students in all grade levels to drive and park on school grounds.

The new system will divide parking lots by students who are seniors, those who have restricted licenses and those who have unrestricted licenses. This differs from the system used in past years, which only allowed seniors, juniors and sophomores to drive, with underclassmen parking in the main lot.

Zimmerman said this new policy was created due to the change in driving laws over the past few years that have allowed more students to drive to school at a younger age. According to Zimmerman, the school’s policy that prohibited freshmen from driving posed a problem for students and their parents.

“Dr. [Amy] Murphy filtered a lot of calls from frustrated parents over the past few years about freshmen not being able to park at school,” Zimmerman said. “We had enough room available to make the change, it was really only a question of, ‘Why not?’ We still made a few restrictions because we still want the parking lots to be safe even with the entrance of so many new drivers.”

Instead of all underclassmen parking in the main lot, Zimmerman said all drivers that are issued a restricted parking permit will be required to park in the DAC. Students who hold unrestricted licenses may park in the main lot and seniors will remain in the senior lot.

“The reason we are putting them in the DAC is not because we are trying to punish them because they’re underclassmen,” Zimmerman said. “Some sophomores and even juniors will be down there too, it’s to give the newer drivers more room and to prevent a lot of the rear-endings and nicking of cars in the busier main lot.”

Junior Bayleigh Mitchell said the new policy may help clear up clutter and prevent rear-endings in the main lot but, she said she believes there is a good chance the new policy will cause anger among students who will have to abide by the stricter enforcements for parking permits in the DAC.

“[I think] we should keep the old policy,” Mitchell said. “[The] new policy will just be a big mess and people are going to be really upset.”

Zimmerman said she will differentiate between types of parking permits by the color of pass, unrestricted most likely being a solid color and restricted having diagonal stripes. According to Zimmerman, students who do not follow parking policy and choose to park out of their designated lot will be ticketed. Once students graduate from their restricted license to a full license, they may upgrade to an unrestricted parking permit in the security office, Zimmerman said.

According to Zimmerman, all parking permits will continue to be $15 and any individual violation will be $25.

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Changes To Parking Permit Policy