In recent years at Kingswood Oxford, parking has become an increasingly pressing issue. However, this year, the KO administration has strived to make improvements to the parking situation. In previous years there were issues with a lack of parking space and unorganization in the parking lot. “Last year, students were coming to me and saying there is nowhere to park and they needed to get to class, so it has become one of our top properties at the school, to make sure we have the parking situation figured out,” Upper School Administrative Coordinator Lindsay Perkins said.
Mrs. Perkins and Executive Assistant to the Head of School Sherry Malinoski worked very hard this summer to improve the parking situation.
After researching the best ways to handle this issue by taking a look at other independent schools in the area and how they handle their parking, this year, new rules have been implemented. Decals have been given out to every KO student, faculty, and staff, to be placed on the back rear-view window of each car in order to verify that everyone parked is indeed a student, faculty, or staff of KO.
In order to receive a decal, everyone must fill out a google form registering their car. This google form includes the make/model of the car and license plate number. The goal of this is to make sure that KO does not have unregistered cars filling up parking spaces during the school day. “I remember last year coming to school some days and not being able to find a parking space and being really annoyed because random civilians were parked on our campus while they visited Blue Back Square,” said senior Sophia Brunalli. “Now that cars on campus are required to have a decal, hopefully only KO faculty and students will be parking in our parking lot this year.”
One of the biggest changes is that underclassmen are no longer allowed to register their cars for parking spots. This helps reduce the number of students needing a space to park. As more juniors and seniors get their licenses, the demand for parking spaces will increase. Limiting the grades who can park allows for all upperclassmen to be able to find parking when they are able to drive to school. Junior Ava Chasman thinks that this has definitely improved the situation. “Compared to last spring, there have been many more spaces open in the parking lot,” Ava said. “That could be due in part to the fact that there are less new drivers, but I think the new decals have helped streamline the parking situation at KO.”
This year’s changes have undoubtedly improved the situation so far, “No one has come up to me saying they can’t find a parking spot and everything has been going smoothly,” Mrs. Perkins said.
Time will tell whether KO’s effort to improve the parking situation is successful or not as more and more juniors begin to drive to school as the school year progresses.
