Parking has always been a sore subject for the attendees of Roseville High School (RHS).  Being so deep into a neighborhood, RHS has five different parking areas, and that doesn’t include the multitude of students who park in the neighborhood.  Having that many parking lots means there are that many places to exit the campus.  

Students who have fourth period off take a gamble every day, guessing if the gate or exit nearest their car is unlocked.  There have been days where I have gone to the gate that is near where I park, and see that it is closed, so then I walk back through the campus to the next closest exit to see if it’s open.  Then, I make my way back to my car.  

This is not a routine I would like to get into every day because it is very time-consuming.  Many students, including myself, have places they need to be right after school and don’t have much time to waste.  This includes but is not limited to work, picking up younger siblings, appointments, etc.  They have other people dependent on how quickly they get out of school.  The uncertainty of how long it will take to leave campus can severely interfere with peoples’ schedules.

I understand that there are campus monitors that try to get the gates unlocked for off-period students; however, if it is not open, it can be difficult to find a monitor to open a gate.  Waiting for a campus monitor is another aspect that wastes time after class.

There should be a system in place so students have the ability to plan their route to their car.  There are many different ways this system can operate.  One option is to just get them all open before the end of third period.  However, I know that’s unlikely to happen because campus monitors and the faculty have other important things to do and can’t drop everything to open the gates.

Another option is to only open certain gates that give access to all the parking lots.  For example, only opening the gate by the Berry lot and the one by the senior lot heading toward the neighborhood.  That gives access to all the parking areas.  However, it would be difficult for people that are, for example, parked in front of the cafeteria and have to leave campus through the senior parking lot exit.  

The most effective system is to create a schedule where you only open half the gates every other day, making sure each day, the gates that are opened are equally spread around the campus.  That schedule should be shared with every student, so they know when gates will be open or not.  It is also fair to the students, unlike the previous option I just explained, so everyone is equally close to or far from campus exits every other day.  This way, students will be able to estimate how long it will take them to get to class and don’t have to waste time going to each gate trying to find which ones are open and which ones aren’t.