As parking spaces fill up, both students and staff struggle to find parking in Woodside High School’s parking lots.

Woodside High School is known for having one of the largest parking lots in the district, but as more students are getting their licenses and construction takes up space, many students and staff members are forced to park illegally or not park at all because of the lack of space. Amanda Steinebel, a senior and student driver at Woodside expressed her anger about the parking situation at Woodside.

“I have a really big problem with the parking at Woodside because there’s never enough spots for all the students and the students that don’t park in actual spots because there’s not enough get a ticket even if they have a parking pass,” Steinebel stated.

Parking passes are sold in the main office for $30 for students and staff. Many people have expressed complaints because they still have to pay this fee even though parking is not always guaranteed.

“I don’t think it’s our fault, it’s the school’s fault because we’re paying for parking and they’re not providing it for us,” Steinebel stated.

Clarissa Murad, another senior and student driver at Woodside, has a problem with the parking as well.

“It’s so awful because sophomores get the parking spaces and they’re not supposed to,” Murad explained. “I’ve had to make my own parking space because I come at 10:35 on A days and there’s no parking spaces left. Like today I had to park in the visitor’s parking spot.”

When asked about what Woodside should do about the lack of parking, both Murad and Steinebel had ideas about how the administration should take care of the situation.

Steinebel commented, “I think they should stop selling parking passes to sophomores because if it’s just juniors and seniors then that would eliminate a lot of parking passes. Then sophomores can just get it next year or their junior year.”

Murad expressed a more structured way of fixing the situation.

“Basically we should number each spot so the first two rows should be for seniors and the rest should be for underclassmen,” Murad stated. “Each spot should be numbered like the numbers on the parking permits. So everyone has their own individual parking spot.”

Students are not the only ones facing issues with the lack of parking. Teachers and other staff members are affected by the parking situation as well. Ms. With, the leadership teacher at Woodside, agreed that there’s definitely a problem with the parking.

With said, “I do think that parking has become tighter right now because even as staff member if you’re not here by a certain time it’s very hard to get a parking spot. I have had to, if I’m running late, to park up in the student parking lot.”

When asked about the problem with the construction, With mentioned that it could be a combination of factors.

“One is construction. I think another is that we have construction workers who sometimes park [in the parking lots]. That’s something that could be happening. I also think we have more drivers like the sophomores are starting to drive and get parking passes” With stated.

Another concern is the availability of parking at graduation this upcoming week. With commented on how Woodside is planning on taking care of these worries.

“It’s going to be tight. There’s no doubt about that,” With said. “I’m encouraging students to carpool. They’re trying to have where if people need to park further away, I believe they’re going to have a shuttle kind of just doing a loop.”

Hopefully Woodside’s ideas for solving the parking situation during graduation will be successful. With also commented on what the school is thinking about with the upcoming year.

“I think it’s kind of a first you have to really identify what the problem is. I mean once the faculty lane is open and the Alameda entrance is open then yeah, that’s going to help with that. If anything, maybe we’ll look at the students getting passes. And maybe do we have to put say ‘no sophomores.’”

Ultimately, the school will start making more decisions when construction has cleared up. Once the construction of the J-wing has concluded, administration will decide if further measures need to be taken to free up parking at Woodside. With expressed that although the school is trying their best, but in the end, there is not a whole lot they can do.

“We’re trying to make every effort, but there’s a point where we can only do so much,” With commented.