Because of construction on the CHS campus, parking is being shifted. A parking lot is closing, and the lots will be crowded with not only students and teachers, but also construction workers.
All students are required to get a parking pass in order to park in CHS parking lots. This is so the people can differentiate between students, teachers, and construction workers.
“They are passes that are required by the construction company, and they’re also something that we need to have,” Student Activities Director Mike Nelke said. “Parking obviously is going to be changed with construction.”
With the construction, some parking near the Center of Clayton is closing. Students have to find new places for their cars to go.
“We’re going to lose about 50 spots I believe, which is going to force people to different places,” Associate Prinicipal Dan Gutchewsky said.
The city can ticket anyone without a pass. People who work nearby sometimes park illegally in CHS parking lots.
“Although you’re not supposed to, sometimes people that work in the office towers just off of Forsyth will park there in the morning and leave their cars there all day,” Gutchewsky said.
Brown Shoe is allowing CHS access to their parking lot this year. But it is still mostly empty.
“We have enough spots, it’s just a matter of how far people want to walk,” Gutchewsky said.
Even without construction, school parking gets harder as the year goes on.
“If you figure, when we start the school year, most sophomores can’t drive so it’s only juniors and seniors that are driving,” Nelke said. “As the year goes on, more and more sophomores are turning 16, and so more and more sophomores are driving. Parking is always worse second semester than it is first semester just because of that very fact.”
Nelke said that he hadn’t heard any students complaining. However, there were complaints.
“I think the new student parking situation is kind of a problem because I used to have my own spot that I parked in every day and now there’s a lot of fences up,” senior Bradley Buse said.
Crowded parking lots at CHS are unavoidable.
“Parking is going to be a pain for the next two years,” Nelke said. “There’s no way around it.”