Parking Permit Problem
Students leaving school and walking to their cars in the parking lot. Photo by Mikayla Kauffmann
Parking Permit Problem
In 2011, the price of a parking permit was $100 for the year. This year, a parking permit will run you $200 - a 100% increase in cost over eight years for those opting to drive to school. More and more students are vying for parking spots every year, with the service drive normally filling up before the end of the first semester. It’s safe to say that parking is in high demand at our school. However, an increase in demand for parking does not necessarily mean that the prices for parking need to increase. When asked how much revenue is generated from parking permits every year, the district stated that they were not able to release the actual number. However, there are 561 spots in the main lot of the high school, not including the service drive. At $200 a spot it can be estimated that the high school draws at least $112,200 each year in revenue from the main lot.
When asked, the administration was not able to say a lot about what the revenue generated from parking is applied to, only that the amount is dumped into the overall main budget for the school every year. Other schools tend to publish an analysis of how much they make from student parking every year, such as Germantown’s yearly analysis of profit, as highlighted on page 9 of the PDF posted by the Germantown School District. When examining the cost of a permit at Hamilton versus other schools in the area, our cost of parking was $58.27 more than the average parking fee per year for Wisconsin schools participating in the survey.
Schools near Hamilton mostly have parking spots that cost less: Slinger costing $70 per year, Cedarburg costing $150 per year, Oconomowoc costing $125 per year, Arrowhead costing $175 per year, Menomonee Falls High School costing $170 per year, and Pewaukee prices varying between $75-$150 per year depending on where your spot lies within the parking lot. It can be seen from the 2018-2019 School Fees Comparison-Sussex Survey (Page 6) published by Germantown High School that the cost of a parking permit at Hamilton is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum.
If students are going to be paying this steep of a price for a parking spot, should they have the option of being able to paint their parking spots? Within the last few years, more and more high schools around the nation are beginning to allow students to paint the spot that they purchase at the beginning of the year. Schools such as West Orange High School in Florida, state that they chose to let students paint their parking spot because they feel it boosts school spirit and shows each individual’s personality. With Hamilton’s steep parking price, students should be allowed to paint their parking spot if they submit their design (page 3) to the administration to have approved before painting their spot. This may make the sting of forking over the $200 for the spot hurt a little less. If the administration is not open to allowing students to paint our parking spots, Hamilton should consider lowering the price of the parking permits to better match the average price or be more forthcoming about where the revenue from parking spots is placed.
