by Katherine Green
After encouragement from the student leadership team that meets with the school principals once a month, STA has started a new carpool program, according to President Nan Bone. The carpool program, put in action this year, allows drivers who drive at least two non-sibling students to have a reserved parking spot in the student parking lot. The school painted the parking parking spots’ lines in November, beginning the program.
To distinguish these drivers from others at the school, Bone will give a parking pass to each carpool who signs up for them. Also, each parking spot will be marked “Carpool Only,” according to Bone.
“As [carpooling] grows, [the school will] reserve more spots,” Bone said. “This way we’re really not taking away any [spots] but we’re just adding more.”
To keep track of each pass and carpool, there will not be a parking pass for each person, Bone said, but only one for each carpool. For instance, if the carpool consists of multiple drivers and cars, the pass is to be shared among the carpool.
Sophomore Mary Campbell carpools with sophomores Sophia Mandacina and Alison Muñoz, and is excited for the new program. Campbell’s carpool comes from north of the Missouri River, a drive that is 20 minutes long.
“I think [the program is] a really good idea because I already carpool and it’d be awesome to have a reserved spot,” Campbell said. “And since there are so many other cars in the parking lot, it’ll save some space.”
Although students such as Campbell like the new program, some students, such as sophomore Machella Dunlea, are concerned the carpool spots will take away from the junior/ senior parking lot or the sophomore lot. However, the reserved spots will come from the spots that lined the sophomore parking lots that were not used this year.
“So many sophomores started driving this year,” Dunlea said. “If [the school takes] away [parking spots] from our lot, I don’t know what we’ll do. I can’t take anyone to school because I have basketball so no one’s going to want to do the program with me. So, if I come last minute I’ll lose my spot to the [carpool program].”
However, if the carpool spots become full, new carpool spots will come from the grade’s parking lot they would originally be in. For instance, if it is a junior who is carpooling and all of the available spots are taken, then a new spot would be reserved in the junior lot for the carpool program.
Also, with the parking spots, the first carpoolers who arrive start parking at the closest spots to the school and the next parks in the one directly behind the taken spots. Therefore, people who are in the program do not have to search for parking spots every day.
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