High School Parking Lot: The Pros

The Board of Education scheduled an open meeting of the joint Facilities and Finance Committee for Monday at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting will include a public hearing on the proposed expansion of the parking lot at . Several residents, as well as the students of Chatham High, say that the lot would be a benefit to all those who utilize the high school. Here are from those who say that the parking lot should be built.

Kyliegh's Law

The New Jersey state law commonly known as Kyleigh's Law prohibits drivers under 21 from transporting more than one passenger at a time. This makes carpooling with multiple students impossible and places a premium on parking spaces, since only up to two students can share a single spot.

School policy dictates that only seniors can get assigned parking, and only for one semester, before the parking spot is turned over to another senior. In 2011, only 96 spaces will be available for 303 seniors, and the congestion will only increase in the foreseeable future.

Overcrowding

The graduating class of 2011 is the smallest class within the Chatham school system. The forecast for the next 10 years is an ever-increasing class size, which places a heavy burden on the school's entire infrastructure, including parking.

Overcrowding at Chatham High has been a growing issue for several years, and the administrators have instituted a number of policies to try to alleviate the immediate pressures. For example, the school has an open campus policy for lunch. However, students said that they often do not take advantage of this policy because they are afraid of not being able to find a parking space when they come back.

Currently there are about 1,100 students at Chatham High, up from about 650 in the mid-1990s and forecasted to hit 1,400 within the next five years.

Time is Not On Their Side

Chatham High students do a lot of activities, and they run very tight schedules. Many play on sports teams that begin practices at 2:50 p.m. or 3 p.m. at different fields. Others have clubs that they belong to that meet either on campus or off. Others have after-school jobs or obligations to their families, such as chores or watching their younger siblings.

Students say they have limited time already between when school gets out at 2:35 p.m. and when they have these other obligations. They say finding another person whose schedule matches their own is nearly impossible. They feel that parking is a necessity with their schedules.

Students have also said that with their rigorous studies, as well as these other activities, they often stay up late into the night to study. Some students make it a practice to come to school late so as to avoid the congestion and have an extra 10 or 15 minutes of sleep, but then find they cannot find a parking space. Other students wake up early after a late night studying so they can get to school and find a space early, but then are drained and exhausted during the day. Adding more spaces to the lot could help alleviate both of these problems, students say.

More Than a High School

Finding a parking space is notoriously difficult, and not just for school. Plays, concerts, meetings, elections, and charity events are all held at Chatham High School, and parking is scarce for all these events. Residents have said that expanding the parking lot would be a service to the entire community.

Where There's a Need

The population of Chatham residents, as well as students in the district, is trending upward, and the demands on facilities will likewise increase. The funds for the parking lot will be taken out of the capital reserve fund and replenished over time with tax dollars. Residents voted in favor of the budget, which included the funds (though not the obligation or necessity) for expanding the parking lot, and Floral Street resident and Chatham High PTO President Karen Jackson should expand the lot while they could.

“If you have money in the budget and have the opportunity to deal with it now, you should deal with it now,” Jackson said.

A Question of Safety

With cars occasionally speeding through the area and the roads students have to walk from the parking lot to the school and back lacking sidewalks, safety is a big concern, said Jim O'Neill, the superintendent of Chatham schools.

“We’ve had several occasions where kids have been hit by vehicles,” said O’Neill. Students have been hit by cars while on foot and on bicycles, and there have been numerous near hits and near misses as well, O'Neill said.

O’Neill also said that the district had looked into other parking expansion options around the campus but deemed that the considered spaces would accommodate fewer cars and end up being more expensive per space.