Last year, a proposal was put out by Olivia Benner, a current senior, that the parking spaces in the student lot should be allowed to be painted by students.

The first point in her proposal was about the amount of paint needed. She explained how the students painting their own parking spaces for the senior year would be a fun way to boost school spirit and allow seniors to enjoy their final year of high school. She went over the costs and amount of paint needed for the parking spaces and justified the prices. She explained how each space could be repainted at the end of the year, allowing students the next year to be given a fresh canvas.

“The average size of a parking spot is around 90 square feet,” Benner said. “Given that five gallons of paint can cover 1,800 square feet, that means that each parking space will require two quarts of paint to be recovered black.”
With that in mind, the next point in her proposal is the pricing of the paint. The students would have to pay for the paint themselves, in addition to their parking pass. In regards to the price, those who do not repaint their spot with black paint at the end of the year would be charged an extra fee, in return generating additional revenue.

“The price for one quart of paint runs to $12.98 on Home Depot’s website,” Benner said. “Being that 2 quarts are needed to cover the parking space the total cost of cover-up paint per student will be approximately $25.95. Other school systems that allow for students to paint parking spaces often can get a large discount from the supplier.”

Benner suggests that the ideas for parking spaces be reviewed by the administration, eliminating any chance of students painting anything inappropriate on their spaces. Additionally, there would be a supervisor on the day of the painting to ensure that everyone stays on course and finishes their approved design.

Benner presented the idea to the student council and shortly afterward the idea was shut down. Not much reasoning was given at the time as to why the idea would not be allowed to move forward. But, Mr. Hamilton, a teacher at WHS and head of the Student Council, was able to provide more insight on the topic.

“[Administration] didn’t like the idea,” Hamilton said. “They thought that assigning one spot to a certain student wasn’t a good idea because we have so many kids coming in late and leaving early throughout the day…It was more just about efficiency and wanting them to have enough available spaces…It was an interesting, good idea, but we can’t really do anything without administrative authority. That’s kind of where it started and ended pretty quickly.”

When discussing possible solutions to the existing problem of limited parking, Hamilton expressed that if Wadsworth High School had a parking lot designated just for seniors, it would be a lot easier to implement something like painted parking spaces. However, with the current parking lots being divided between the YMCA, the high school, and the middle school, it just is not plausible to have certain parking spaces restricted to a single student. According to Hamilton, the school’s view is that they already limit parking on more of a first come, first serve basis.

However, with the announcement of the construction of the new CIS building here on the high school campus area, the administration has the perfect opportunity to do just that. The school could assign one of the parking lots to a designated senior section, which would allow for the eventual addition of senior-painted parking spaces.

It is still too early to know how the new building will affect the current parking situation, and according to Hamilton, it could even make the situation worse.

However, the new CIS construction gives the administration a great opportunity to at least look into dividing up the parking lots into a more efficient system. If something like this is enacted, it would allow the student council to be able to set up painted parking spaces for seniors, boosting school spirit and allowing students to better enjoy their senior year here at WHS.