BY KEEGAN VANMETER (‘19)

Students are required to pay for parking passes for the first time in years to fund the new drug testing policy, causing some students to try to skip out on paying.

Some students tried to avoid paying the $40 fee by taking other people’s parking spots. Principal Matt Durst said students who parked without paying the fee would be punished.

“If students are persistently parking without registration, parents will be notified,” Principal Matt Durst said.

Assistant Principal Scott Carpenter said he had to email 8 parents about students parking without registration in the first five days of school.

Carpenter said his emails have been effective, but “two or three people still need to be notified.”

Do you agree with the parking fee?

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While some students object to the fee because they disagree with the new drug policy, others think the fee is just to high.

“The fee is too much, almost like the school is making money off of us,” junior Ben Blanchard said.

While some of the money will be used for drug testing, the excess money will be used for student perks, such as a student wellness activities, according to Principal Matt Durst.

Parent Carmen Musick says she agrees with the fee, however, thinks that only those who opt in to the random drug testing should pay, and the fee should not be as grand. She also feels that there should be some sort of family pass for parents with multiple kids driving to school to cut down on cost.

“You should only have to pay one fee,” Musick said.

Durst stated that the fee is $10 less than it was in the years Chuck Dilbone was principal.

Despite controversy, 325 students have registered for parking, which is comparable to last year, according to Carpenter.

“The upper lot is full and about 80 parking spots are left in the lower lot,” Carpenter said.