The hands of the clock tick more slowly than ever as students await the final bell allowing them to rush to the Commons for their parking spots. The never-ending line works its way through the halls, filled with students becoming more antsy by the minute. Everyone is pushing and shoving, trying to get the best spot next to their friend. The clock continues to tick slower and slower, dragging on the day. It’s the last day of school and the last place everyone wants to be is… at school.
This year, the madness will be gone. Student Resource Officer Dennis Randall is implementing a new online process regarding selecting parking spots.
“It’s going to start during the summer during registration, providing everything’s online and ready to go,” he said. “The seniors will go the first two days, and they’ll be able to fill out the paperwork part, click on the map and choose their spot. In addition to that, you will have to fill out the application on Synergy. The first two days will be for seniors because they get first pick. Then after the two days, it will be open to seniors and juniors. Sophomores will more than likely not be driving because we are going to have some construction. If you want to have a parking spot next to your friend, you guys need to be in proximity because it’s first come, first serve.”
In years past, he said the process of choosing spots has been very troublesome.
“Before assigned parking spots, it was first come, first serve,” he said. “We had the first three or four rows from the football field reserved for seniors and opened it up to juniors and sophomores after that. The first year, I assigned number spots just for seniors to test it out. The kids seemed to love having their own spot. I’ve implemented that throughout the rest of the parking spaces. As of right now, we have a total of 619 spots open to students, and then we have the gravel road.”
On average, Randall issues passes to over half of Blue Valley students. This year alone, he has passed out over 750 permits.
“I’ve heard nothing but bad things about students having to wait in lines [and] coming up and trying to cut each other, and I’ve tried to eliminate that by distributing numbers,” he said. “For something that should only take an hour or two, it ends up being an all-day thing. It’s been really problematic. It will eliminate the really long lines and people cutting them.”
Randall said he hopes to have the new system running by May 1, so he can test it out.
“It’s my brain child, so I’m hoping it will be successful,” Randall said.