At a meeting with parents and students this Tuesday, Principal Patrick Tutwiler unveiled plans for limited parking next year: roughly 130 spots for an estimated 195 senior drivers.

Earlier this year, Superintendant Gary Burton said there would be no student parking due to construction of the new high school building. However, High School Principal Patrick Tutwiler, working in tandem with Wayland’s public buildings director John Moynihan and dean of students Scott Parseghian, came up with a plan to have limited parking space on campus available to students.

Parking is “an important part of the senior experience,” said Tutwiler at the meeting on Tuesday. Tutwiler emphasized that the on-campus parking effort would be “focused 100% on the seniors.”

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While many of next year’s juniors and some sophomores will be legally able to drive themselves to school, Tutwiler and the vast majorities of the parents at this “parking committee” meeting focused on allowing seniors to park. Tutwiler did also mention the possibility of having offsite parking, possibly at St. Ann’s Parish, for juniors and having a shuttle bus. However, he cautioned that the costs involved would very likely be “prohibitive,” and that he was more interested in channeling the available funds towards the on-campus project.

According to Tutwiler and Parseghian, they expect approximately 195 seniors will drive next year. The job of the 25 parents and six members of the Class of 2011 at the committee meeting was to determine how the spots could most efficiently and fairly be divided up amongst next year’s senior class.

All current juniors – next year’s seniors – were invited to attend the meeting in an email to the entire junior class. Parents of juniors and sophomores were welcome as well.

The current senior parking lot will be closed next year because of the new building construction project; one of the two new buildings will be built on the senior lot.

Proposed parking plan for 2010-’11

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The construction crew originally believed they would need the space currently occupied by the junior lot as well, to park their equipment. However, earlier on Tuesday, Tutwiler was informed that one-third of the lot could be available for on-campus parking, opening up roughly 50 spots. The exact number may not be known until the beginning of the next school year.

The vast majority of spots available will be in what is currently the pool parking lot, which after a small expansion will have a capacity of roughly 150 spaces.

The biggest new source of parking – the source that is likely the reason seniors have parking next year – is the new parking lot that will be built behind the Math and English building. This temporary lot will be made of a composite material the town already has available, and will yield close to 100 spots. A temporary road, that needs to be built for emergency vehicle access anyway, will be built access to the new lot.

Roughly 144 staff members require daily parking at the school, leaving roughly 130 spaces for seniors to park, according to the administration.

Tutwiler says he would like to have students park in pool lot so that they do not have to drive around the back of the school, where they could encounter foot traffic.

After Principal Tutwiler presented this information, the committee of parents and students split into smaller groups to work out strategies for dividing up the parking spots amongst the senior class. The consensus was that the spots should be divided up fairly and, preferably, all the seniors should have a ride to school due to carpooling.

Many suggested that all seniors be required to drive at least one other senior, a move that would cut down the number of spots needed for seniors down to just under 100. The rest of the spots could be given to juniors, or could be given out to seniors who couldn’t find a carpool through a lottery system.

“I thought it was productive,” said junior Colleen O’Neill, who attended the meeting. Carpooling is “a really good idea. People find ways home all the time,” she added.

For more on the new high school project check out our series: Road to the New Wayland High School