Bus barn parking lot is now open behind the student parking lot exactly where the buses used to be. The lot added 329 new parking spots for students, allowing the entire junior and senior classes with to receive parking spots for the 2018-19 school year. All students that applied to get a parking spot received one, with even more spots to spare. The extra spots are being kept open however for any students that will be getting a license after the start of the school year.  

The spots were added after the CUSD board approved of it. The buses were moved to a location over by the police station and new spots were painted over the old ones.

Principal Dan Serrano explained: “I had to say we’ll get as many kids as we can in here, like at zero hour, and out of here after fourth hour so when school is over we don’t have a congestion problem”.

While it is seemingly unfair to put seniors in the back of the lot, Serrano assures that this decision is not targeted to the class. Serrano added, “It’s just something I had to do to help traffic flow”. Instead, a number of concerns from the district board and neighborhood association made it so the campus staff had to strategize in a way to make the parking lot less congestive in total.

After receiving complaints from the homeowners association and the owners of flipside, as well as complaints from the residents of the area concerning kids parking on the street and in the church parking lot the district was forced to take the matter into their hands.

“The process is to tell the superintendent ‘Listen I need parking,'” Serrano said, “Last year when school started we had 130 kids on a waiting list.” The waiting list is now empty and left more spots that are still available to be filled. 

The district agreed to put in the new parking lot as long as it wouldn’t cause further congestion on S. Key Biscayne Drive after school. The street is the main exit for the buses after school and is a main exit for the student parking lot. Placing the seniors in the new lot was a solution to alleviating some of the traffic that would have come from the new lot, as many seniors take half days and leave after fourth hour.   

Many of the seniors in the class of 2019 have complaints about the new parking lot that took over where the buses used to park. The walk is long and in the summer months, very hot as well. After endured a long 3 years of late homework nights, mental breakdowns and last minute studying, the class of 2019 looked forward to a short walk from car to campus; sadly, the district and school had other plans. The new parking lot, installed last school year, and the bus barn lot had to be filled with early release and zero hour students, mainly composed of seniors.

Although many of the seniors have complaints about the parking situation this year, the reasons behind why they were put in the new lot are valid. The class of 2019 will be the first of many to make the hike from the bus barn parking lot to campus each morning.