After years of upperclassmen vying over coveted spaces, Western’s new parking lot is here. WAHS built the seniors-only parking lot, which sits at the front of the school close to the exit, over the summer in an attempt to accommodate the 411 juniors and seniors who put in a request to drive to school in the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
The new lot marks a development in an ongoing struggle as classes entering Western grow each year, needing more and more parking spaces. Principal Jennifer Sublette submitted the request for a new parking lot to the central office two years ago, according to assistant principal Doug Granger, as administrators, “knew from the first year after COVID that we were behind… and it had kind of fallen off the radar.”
Senior Taylor Florin described a similar anticipation for the lot. “It provides more opportunities for seniors to have the parking lot that we’ve been looking up to have for four years,” she said.
The lot added 59 new spaces to Western’s existing repertoire, now totaling 330—81 fewer than the number of students who requested a spot. This shortage means that juniors were able to secure a parking pass for either A or B days, unless the student has extenuating circumstances. The lot, “wasn’t quite enough to get juniors to drive every day, which was what we hoped, but it was enough that we didn’t have to do a lottery or turn any juniors away,” Granger said.
Senior Victoria Baynum views the lot positively, noting that, “it’s a lot easier to get out of than the junior lot.” On the other hand, Anja La Fleur, another senior, said that she wished both entrances would be open for students exiting the lot at dismissal; currently, they are only both open in the mornings. Overall, “It’s great. It gives us a lot more space,” Brader Eby said, articulating a shared feeling among seniors.
However, although the parking issue was largely curbed this year, administrators may eventually return to pulling names out of a hat to distribute parking passes, as class sizes are not expected to decrease or plateau in the coming years. “If you’re normally expecting 1000 kids per class… the fourth and fifth grade are more like 1200, so they’re big,” Granger noted. While the new parking lot offers a temporary solution for current juniors and seniors, it will likely not be enough to contain the growing classes that pass through Western in five or six years.
