Over the past year, the middle school parking lot has become the subject of contention between AHS students and administration. Due to a lack of parking spots and over-distribution of parking passes, many students have become agitated with the lack of parking and worried about an increase of ticketing with no apparent solution for parking in sight

According to Assistant Principal John Bangley, there are three main apparent issues with the parking situation: the number of spots available and parking passes issued, the number of students parking illegally, and a lack of an alternative.

Available spots and parking passes:

Bangley explained that between the AHS and AMS parking lots, there are a total 266 spots, but the district distributes 380 passes, including 88 student permits. Of the middle school spots, 5 are handicap and 15 are visitor. Teachers are using an estimated 41, and high school students are using an estimated 122. However, every staff member is given a pass at the beginning of the year, meaning that before that before students even begin to purchase passes, 280 are distributed. The number of student passes sold this year was 88, bringing the total of passes given out to 380, exceeding the available parking spots by 114. Although it must be taken into consideration that not all teachers park, this creates a dilemma, and as Bangley sees it, student parking does not take priority.

“I guess I haven’t been here long enough to know why they even allow students to park here. It’s not that I think students shouldn’t park, but we just don’t have spaces available,” Bangley said.

Although Tiehack is an alternative parking option for students, there are only about 45 available spots, assuming that no one else is parked there. Bangley noted that ideally, AHS would create a parking garage for student parking, but due to issues with space and the school’s budget, this feat is close to impossible.

“This is a small area, and the school’s growing, and there are no spaces,” said Bangley. “That’s a fact, and a problem that needs to be solved.”

Illegal parking:

Although numerically it seems impossible, it would appear as if students are still finding a way to park in the middle school. From a survey posted in the AHS class of 2017 Facebook page, 61% of the 71 juniors that responded to the survey who drive to school manage to park in the middle school.

“We need an alternative,” AHS junior Devin Randel said. “There are days when I have to drive to school because I have ballet immediately after until about 8:30 at night. It’s not fair to have no solution.”

Seeing as there is no current, feasibly possible alternative, Bangley says that students should expect to see an increase in ticketing and booting for the rest of the semester and next year. For the first time in AHS history, there is an official job position to monitor the AMS parking lot and write tickets for students without parking passes. Bangley sees this as one of the main reasons why students are seeing such as issue with parking this year

“Before this year, it was the principal or vice principal’s responsibility, and we just don’t have enough time,” Bangley said. “If that were me this year it probably would not be the highest item on my priority list. It’s an issue that hasn’t been addressed, but we’re working on it now.”

When asked if he thought ticketing would be an effective way to eliminate illegal parkers, Bangley paused.

“I’ll put it like this,” he said. “It’s like a windshield wiper in the rain. You wipe, and then you wipe again. If people continue to receive $75 tickets, they won’t be coming back.”

Possible alternatives:

Although Bangley and principal Tharyn Mulberry acknowledge that the issue of parking is one that needs to be addressed, it truly comes down to an issue of space and cost. Because of the landscape in Aspen and AHS’s limited funds, it seems nearly impossible as of now to expand the parking lot, or create another.

“Although we need to look forward and ask ourselves ‘what can be done?’ However, that’s not a main focus of mine. I hate negative stuff, and I know that [ticketing] is viewed as a negative option,” said Bangley. “I would really love to be proactive, but right now it’s just not an option.”