Although in previous years juniors and seniors have had designated parking lots, this year, the student parking lots have been merged, making all spots accessible to both grades.

The future construction of solar panel car ports in the parking lots initiated this change. Various areas of the parking lot will be constructed upon throughout the school year.

“[Constructing the solar panels] is really exciting and is a town initiative around renewable energy,” principal Allyson Mizoguchi said.

To make way for construction, sections of the parking lot will close throughout the year. According to Mizoguchi, administration saw the “first-come-first-serve” option as the easiest approach for that reason.

“I can see [how some students may want to follow the old rule],” Mizoguchi said. “We’ve always done it a certain way, and this year we are doing something slightly differently, so that means we sort of have to forget how things were done before.”

Mizoguchi also mentioned the change’s effect on people’s schedule.

“It’s a great incentive for people to get here maybe before they even have to be here, if it means scoring a better parking spot,” Mizoguchi said.

Senior Emily Barnard gave her input on the change in rhythm that the combined parking lot has caused.

“When I was a junior I had to park in the junior lot, so I feel like it’s only fair if the juniors park in the junior lot now,” Barnard said. “I mean, if I was a junior I’d probably be happy, but it doesn’t seem fair because we had to go in the junior lot.”

Still, Mizoguchi is hopeful that students will respond well to the changes.

“I’m hoping we can just cooperate and make this work and be civilised about a parking spot.” Mizoguchi said.