Tight SHS parking could lead to some restrictions

By Leigh Ann Maze

The teenage rite of passage of receiving a driver's license might not carry as much weight next year for Saratoga High School students, with possible student driving restrictions looming on the horizon.

With a growing body of some 1,200 students and 100 staff members and about 375 parking spots, parking is becoming tight on the campus, Principal Kevin Skelly said. To help alleviate the problem, half of the basketball courts in front of the school were recently striped to provide extra student parking between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

"It's truly an issue," Vice Principal Karen Hyde said. "Once construction starts there's going to be even less parking."

Temporary storage bins in the back parking lot, the new science building and other bond measure projects under way are expected to be constructed by next fall and will swallow up some 75 precious parking spots.

Senior Bryce Kurtz-Fenster organized a student parking committee of nine students representing every class level. "We want to give our suggestions to Dr. Skelly," Kurtz-Fenster said.

The group met for the first time on Jan. 25 to discuss the problem. Several suggestions came out of the meeting, including splitting the student parking into half "permits only" and half first-come, first-served, or restricting all parking to permits only, which would be sold on a seniority basis.

With 600 upperclassmen enrolled at Saratoga High, the student committee and the administration are also considering restricting driving to juniors and seniors only next year. "The freshman don't like it, but they think it's fair," Kurtz-Fenster said.

Freshmen and sophomores currently are not allowed to leave campus during lunch, and the Brady-Jared Teen Driver Safety Act of 1997 further restricts their driving. The act states that for the first six months after receiving a driver's license, every new driver under 20 years of age must be accompanied by a licensed driver over 25 when transporting passengers and when driving between 12 midnight and 5 a.m.

"We certainly are going to discourage kids from driving and encourage car pooling," Hyde said. "But it doesn't always work with sports schedules and after-school jobs."

The parking problem not only affects the students, who have not had school busing since the early 1970s according to Hyde, but the staff as well. According to Skelly, the school is planning to add parking by paving the one-tenth of a mile strip of land between the high school and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. About 20 old fruit trees would have to be removed to pave the area for parking. The trees are some of the few remnants of the apricot, prune, walnut and cherry orchards that were once part of the Worden Ranch, established on the property in 1905. The land was taken over by right of eminent domain in 1955 to build the high school.

With the loss of some parking spots and gaining of others, there will be 400 student parking spots and 125 staff, handicapped and visitor parking spots at the start of next school year, according to Kurtz-Fenster. He added that after looking at these figures the student parking committee might need to rethink their suggestions. The SHS administration is expected to make decisions before the start of the next school year, according to Skelly.

"The kids' recommendations will certainly weigh-in heavily with our decisions," Hyde said.

Photo: Conflict over contemporary home

Commentary: Library bond

Construction, growing student body lead to parking shortage at Sartoga High School

Obituaries

Pearl Medeiros named Business Person of the Year

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

Saratoga High School soccer

High school basketball