With construction on the new high school expedited from next spring to this summer, students at Wayland High will be losing parking privileges on campus a year earlier than expected. Because current student parking lots will be turned into a construction zone, there will not be an option to purchase a parking space on campus next school year. It is not yet clear if there will be a satellite lot so that students can drive to school.
“There will be a fence going right through the middle of campus, very close to a couple of buildings. Everything that right now constitutes the two big parking lots out here [at the high school] will be turned over to the construction companies,” said Dr. Gary Burton, Superintendent of Wayland Public Schools. “You’ll have a Berlin Wall down the middle of the campus, and they’ll build a whole new school for us, and we’re hoping they can do it in 2 years.”
Parking on campus will be severely limited because of construction. “The long and the short of it is that there will be no student parking on campus next year,” said Burton. “We’re even going to have trouble finding parking for the faculty.”
“I’m all for stealing a tennis court,” said junior Sabrina Yurkofsky.
Said Principal Patrick Tutwiler, “As badly as I feel about this, it seems like the students will be losing their parking privileges for next year and until the construction is over.”
UPDATE: Read Tutwiler’s e-mail to the Class of 2011
These tentative plans for student parking were revealed at a School Committee meeting on December 7th, but students still say they’re waiting for more details from the administration.
“They haven’t announced [to us] that there’s a problem with parking yet,” said junior Calvin Williams.
“No one’s said anything about this to us,” said junior Valerie Eisenson. “The administration needs to talk to the school, I feel like they’re trying to keep us out of what’s going on. I would have rather heard it from them.”
“There had been some talk about turning the softball field into temporary parking, but that is so expensive, it’s pouring a lot of money into something that you don’t get anything for in the end,” said Lea Anderson, chair of the High School Building Committee. “We will be looking at the site to figure out where there might be as many spaces as we can find, but it’s very likely that student parking is going to be severely limited or eliminated.”
According Anderson, the choice to build the new school on current parking lots was made for timing reasons. “The main issue in regards to students was: Can school go on while there’s construction happening?,” she said. “That was the major reason that we did the building on the parking lots, so that the current buildings can stay in use 100%.”
The placement of new buildings will also be environmentally beneficial, according to Anderson, who says parking lots, as they are currently placed, are not “a friendly neighbor” to the wells and wetlands surrounding the campus.
Students aren’t thrilled at the prospect of losing parking on campus, which also will indirectly cause the loss of open campus, a traditional senior privilege.
“Senior privileges means being able to go out and use your free time as you want to. Being able to be more responsible. I understand that it’s not a right, it’s a privilege we get from the school, but it feels like freedoms are being taken away from the school. It’s something we’ve looked forward to since we were freshmen,” said junior Danny Meindl.
“Seniors go out to lunch almost every day, and it helps you learn to manage your money better for college,” he continued. ‘What you should be spending money on and what you shouldn’t be. It helps you find where you should be financially.”
“I know that I would depend on my mom for a ride again instead of being able to drive myself,” said junior Samantha Spielman. ” I feel like I’ve always relied on her. Now, I’m not breaking away from that, I’m relying on her again, I’m stuck in that and I feel like college will be a culture shock for me.”
Junior Christa Villari says that parking gives students more freedom to come and go. “It’s nice to come late and leave early,” she said. “It’s more relaxing, especially when there’s a lot of tension. When I have a bad day, I just want to go home when I have that last period free.”
A number of students think the absence of parking will have a noticeable effect on campus life, too, listing overcrowding among their concerns.
“Wellesley High School is going through the same thing,” said junior Samantha Spielman. “There’s a lot of overcrowding there. This year, seniors have two tables [in the Commons], so I think that the Commons will be overcrowded. I think that everyone’s very frustrated about having to pay for the bus now. They can’t park next year, and they’re going to be charged for the bus, too.”
Others are worried about the effects on campus culture, since limited parking will not only affect day-to-day life at Wayland High, but also evening events with high attendance, such as football games or town meetings.
“I feel like we already have a little bit of an issue with school pride,” said junior David Villari. “If we’re not going to be able to go to events at the school because we can’t park, then how are we supposed to support our sports teams, support our clubs, the orchestra, the plays?”
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Burton emphasized his desire to make sure students are on board with the construction process. “I think it will give us the opportunity to treat students with more independence,” said Burton. “I think we’re going to need their cooperation to make this work.”
Tutwiler, too, called for student involvement. “I am looking into this as much as I can. I have some ideas, but they are not complete enough to present. But if you have some [ideas], present them. What we need right now is some creative thinking,” he said.
For now, Wayland students will continue to drive until the construction starts next fall. “This summer there will be pre-construction work done on those parking lots,” said Lea Anderson. “You’ll see trucks and work going on this summer with construction starting in the fall.”
“It’s an integral part of senior year,” said Yurkofsky. “I don’t like the fact that it’s not going to be there. It’s not going to feel any different than freshman year.”
Correction: A quote by Valerie Eisenson was previously published incorrectly as a quote by Valerie Eisensen. It is in-fact Eisenson. The typo has since been corrected.
am • Jan 27, 2010 at 7:07 PM
id like to get to meindl's point about managing money. i know im a freshman but the obvious is staring me in the face: a good way to conserve money is not to buy lunch every day. bringing in your own is considerably cheaper and can be much healthier, depending on what you choose to bring.
Long Live 2011 • Jan 21, 2010 at 12:41 PM
have a fundraiser or something like that. i understand no juniors parking, but no seniors parking is pushing it. after a fundraiser (which i'm sure that every student would participate in), we could transform the field. also, just gravel is good enough; we don't need like pavement or anything like that. heck, i'd even park on grass.
anon • Jan 13, 2010 at 7:38 PM
unbelivable!!!
nobody • Jan 13, 2010 at 1:10 AM
So let's pretend right now that this is happening and there's nothing we can do about it. It's not as simple as just not having having parking. Not having parking entails:
#1 More buses to drive students TO SCHOOL, home FROM SCHOOL, and home FROM SPORTS. Where are they going to put those buses? Oh, I don't know, maybe a bigger parking lot?
#2 More SPACE IN THE COMMONS. As it is now, I can barely find a seat. There is no space for more tables, so they need to make an extension or something in the Commons. What does that take up? Oh yeah, extra space.
#3 A better plan/ way to enter the school. Right now, there's a mini traffic jam every morning before school and every afternoon after school. What if you add even more people (aka parents driving their kids) to the fray? Oh, that's right, a bigger traffic jam. To fix that, they'll have to rethink the whole entrance plan. And that will use -you guessed it- more space.
Obviously this is a short list, but you get the idea. What if they did something totally logical and practical and just HAD SENIOR PARKING ANYWAY? Think of how much space that would save!
2012 • Jan 12, 2010 at 8:31 PM
Okay, so not having a parking lot is suppost to be environmentally friendly? yea right.
all thats going to happen is parents will drive their kids TO the high school, then BACK in the morning, then the parents will drive TO the high school to pick them up and BACK home in the afternoon. Whats the logic in that??? Driving twice as much??
Not many kids are going to take the bus, since parents refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for their kids to take the bus on the way to school in the morning, and never in the afternoon when they have sports, where they have to drive all the way TO the school to pick the kids up.
im all for raising money for the parking lots, but i heard that it could cost 300,000. where are we going to get that kind of money??
2012 • Jan 12, 2010 at 12:58 AM
this is rediculous obviously it was not though out very well. im sure if money was the only issue over using the softball field for parking students would be more then happy to raise the money them selves.
both my parents work and i play three sports so how am i suppost to get home from school. plus i live in north wayland so dont even try to tell me to walk or bike to school which would take me a minimum of 30 min. and yes we all no cars use gas but if you take away parking many parents are going to be driving their kids to school anyway.
i think the real issue is that parking doesnt affect garry burton and the rest of the school board so they dont care. or i even heard that garry burton is trying to teach us a lesson about car usage by not letting us park
2011 • Jan 10, 2010 at 9:36 PM
This has been on my mind constantly since it was first announced. The logic behind taking away parking (and the sort of backhanded way the administration is handling it) is completely skewed. My grade is not seeing this new high school. We're not going to get to enjoy it. We still get the overcrowded commons, subpar facilities, and icy sidewalks of the current school, and yet we're being asked to completely sacrifice something so important to us so the screaming masses of 2013 on can ruin the new buildings, just as the screaming masses of 2011 and backwards have done with the old ones.
Think about that for a second.
Humans are selfish creatures. It's not like we're going to be all smiles as we continue to get up at the crack of dawn and wait out in the cold for angry, overworked parents. We've been looking forward to this since freshman year.
Bob, you in particular are frustrating. Yes, we know cars use fossil fuels. Fossil fuels make greenhouse gases. The Pope is Catholic and the sky is blue. Not everyone in 2011 drives; in fact, I saw more kids in 2009 and 2008 driving than in 2010 and in my grade. I'm VERY lucky that I've got a car to myself while my brother's away in college, and it is my personal wish to savor something not a lot of kids have. It's outrageous that I suddenly and spontaneously have to give up something I (and, by the way, my PARENTS, who work hard and don't have time to be my personal shuttle) have been looking forward to since freshman year and earlier. I realize you may be bitter over your children growing up so fast, but I refuse to continue piggybacking on my parents when I'm about to have a license in my wallet. Not fair to them or to me.
Do your homework; 2011 and 2012 are not dumb.
nobody • Jan 11, 2010 at 8:51 PM
As a member of the class of 2012, I ABSOLUTELY AGREE! I will not ever get to go to the new high school (unless I fail senior year or something, which is not happening), yet I will have to take the bus, not get a car, not get senior privileges, have to squish into a seat in the Commons (if even), force my parents to drive me to school early or come pick me up late…and everything else "2011" said.
It is actually quite appalling how poorly this was all thought out by the school committee. After all, it's our school, why not consider US STUDENTS when planning something?
curious • Jan 12, 2010 at 12:56 AM
yea i agree! this is a school y not consult the students about it. even such a major issue was not reported to the students until very late. it was the administration duty to make sure the studentsknew what big changes were going to happen in this campus. it affects us the most.
ps: mr. tuwiler in one of the articles im WSPN earlier in the year said that no ever will lose their senior/ junior priviledges (before the new school plan was accepted). doesn't that word he gave us apply anymore??!?!
grad • Jan 12, 2010 at 10:24 PM
Actually the new schedule says the new buildings will be ready holiday break 2011/12, so ye you will get to be in the new school
2011 • Jan 15, 2010 at 2:53 PM
I actually have a hard time believing that. A new school that fast? It took a summer and then two semesters to even renovate the Field House. I have trouble accepting two buildings will be up in the equivalent of that time. It won't happen.
'11 • Jan 16, 2010 at 1:08 AM
Even if that is true, 2011 (us juniors) won't be getting anything.
'11 • Jan 11, 2010 at 10:43 PM
this comment = win
frustrated student • Jan 10, 2010 at 4:43 PM
The parking plan is ridiculous. However, I honestly don't think us, the students, are going to get it through to the School Board that this is NOT going to work. They aren't in our position and they have no real idea of the effects of what they're doing. Having no parking for seniors as well as juniors will cause a lack of school spirit and a growth of tension between the grades. Everyone is going to be mad that they are unable to find a seat in the commons at lunch. Think of those few days at the beginning of the terms when its closed campus. A forth of the students in my class can barely even find seats, even with the alternating lunches. I think that the real way this needs to be approached is by taking out one of the parking lots at a time. Or by leaving the softball field open to parking. Yes, the claim has been made that it will cost too much money, but how about paying back those expenses with the money we'll make from school events such as football games? Considering if we don't have ANY parking next year.. it will just be the two teams at the field, and NO ONE else. So why not allow this field to open to parking so that SOME people may actually go to the games? The field doesn't even need to be turned into a complete parking lot. Students can run fundraisers and if we get enough money, we can purchase gravel or some type of dirt to put down on top of the field. And it can be the STUDENTS that do this. I'm sure that enough students will care to help out on a project like this.. Something needs to be done about the current plan, because right now… its not going to work.
nobody • Jan 15, 2010 at 2:12 AM
I really do wonder WHAT exactly, the School Board was thinking.
bob, a parent • Jan 5, 2010 at 3:49 AM
best to get used to limitations on the use of motor vehicles, anyway, people. you're coveting the era peopled by your parents, who created a system based on cheap fossil fuels and no regard for the consequences. that system is obsolete. gone. dead. be creative and figure out a way to preserve your freedom without your vehicle.
nobody • Jan 5, 2010 at 12:21 AM
This is me: sitting at home, reading this, and going, "NOOO!"
Apathy • Jan 4, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Is that really going to happen? If so, then i feel bad for all those seniors who hoped to drive to school. I have no intentions of driving to school so it doesn't affect me :). Is that really how to spell Val's last name?