By Hannah Arendsen
The beginning of the school year comes with a multitude of housekeeping tasks including issuing out parking passes to students who choose to drive to school. To obtain a parking pass at Plainwell High School the student has to fill out the Application for Vehicle Parking Permit sheet which includes information that is used to track the student’s car and pay a $5 sticker fee.
Many students at Plainwell High School have complaints and questions about the parking pass policies; where does the money go and why are they needed?
Hall Monitor Larry Ash says that the reason students need to put the parking sticker on their windshield is for security reasons.
“If something goes wrong and we need to know who’s car is in the parking lot we can look at the number on the sticker and easily find out who the car belongs to,” says Ash.
The parking passes are also used to keep track of whose car is parked where in the parking lot and is useful when the drug dogs come to search.
Students don’t necessarily have a problem with putting the sticker on their car but it is more of the fact of having to pay $5 to park their car in a place where they are forced to come everyday.
According to principal Dr. Jeremy Wright the money goes into a general activity account which funds the parking passes themselves that are around $2 a piece. The leftover money goes towards the senior Craig’s Cruisers trip, student activities, walkie talkies with batteries, and more.
“I haven’t ever bought a parking pass and never plan on it, I just don’t want to fill out the long form and I like to be a pain,” said Cole Evans ‘16.
Parking passes isn’t just a school policy at Plainwell High School, but is implemented at most all other schools in the area. Allegan High School students have to pay just $3 for a pass whereas Portage Central High School students pay $20 per pass. This is because there is limited parking and all of the money made goes towards graduation costs at Portage Central.
As for Plainwell High School students they may want to be grateful for just a $5 fee, compared to $20 at Portage Central and upwards of $200 in the Detroit metro area.