Preposterous Parking Pass Prices By Rachel Kovacs

The new school year has begun here at Brookfield High School and everyone is getting back into the swing of things. The beginning of the year means homework, sleepless nights, and longing for the weekends. It also is the time where BHS students are required to pay $150.00 if they wish to drive and park on school grounds.

Brookfield’s parking pass is the most expensive out of all surrounding schools. Newtown High School students only pay $85 to park their car for the year while at Bethel High School, students are required to pay a mere $50. But, what’s even more interesting is that seniors at Danbury High School pay $35 for a parking pass: that’s a $115.00 difference from Brookfield.

So what happens if a car doesn’t have a parking pass? It’s said by administration that student’s cars will be towed, but that’s not necessarily true. The Brookfield High School hand book states, “A student’s vehicle may be towed (at the owner’s expense) for the following reasons: Parking in a fire lane or “no parking lane,” parking in a Disabled Person’s space, Parking in a travel lane/roadway/inappropriate space, OR failure to follow the parking rules and regulations after loss of privileges.” This means that they can’t tow our cars for simply not having a parking pass. They can only tow if the car is parked inappropriately, or has previously had its parking privileges revoked and continues to disobey the rules.

The parking permits at BHS are vinyl stickers that are to be placed in the bottom right hand corner of the windshield. How much can these vinyl stickers cost to make? A website called rydindecal.com makes the exact parking passes students received this year. Let’s say BHS orders 400 passes. The cost per pass would be 55 cents; 55 cents and students pay $150.00. There is a huge profit being made on these passes. But where does that money go?

When asked about his thoughts on parking permit prices, senior Matt Caruolo said “There used to be no such thing as parking permits. When my stepsister was a student here, BHS wanted to renovate the parking lot so they charged students for parking.” Well, it’s renovated, so why are we still paying?

Another reason for this sky high price could be the limited amount of space. The student parking lot has a total of 221 parking spots and three handicap spots. The senior class alone has 230 students. This would leave no room for juniors to park in the student lot. Limited spacing could be a problem, but if any students look around in the morning, we have a plethora of parking spots available because not everyone drives, and most kids car pool.

Unfortunately, there is no foreseeable change to this parking price anytime in the near future. Therefore, if students want to continue parking on school grounds be sure to save your money and purchase a $150.00 parking pass, or find another way to get to school.