The cost of finding your spot in high school

In previous school years, students complained about the time it took to receive their parking decals. The problem now is no longer just time, the additional fee has caused some unrest at the school. The cost of finding your spot in high school has tripled.

Prior to this year, parking decals only cost students $10, but the price has increased to $30 – a fee that applies to all students purchasing a parking decal. Students no longer have the luxury of paying for a guaranteed designated spot. Now, seniors have the option to pay an additional $10 to the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) in order to receive this assurance.  Seniors can choose the spot they wish to have from a selection reserved by Assistant Principal Karina Menendez. The parking spots lie around the outer-perimeter of the senior lot, and will be painted by the seniors who wish to pay the extra fee.

“I don’t think it was right to raise the prices, since it doesn’t really benefit us,” junior Joli Guttentag said. “Paying 20 extra dollars compared to last year is ridiculous, especially because I have to get to school even earlier in order to park in a decent spot.”

The $30 contributed by both classes will go to the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), a nonprofit group with goals to distribute money throughout the school to improve the overall experience at Miami Palmetto Senior High. The money will transfer to the school fund in order to help maintain and renovate the parking lots.

The additional $10 paid goes to the PTSA, who will then transfer the money to the senior class account. After the supplies for the seniors have been purchased, the extra money transfers to the senior class fund in order to cover the expense of senior activities.

“Using the extra money for the lots could be good if they find a way to make more exits or a more orderly system of getting out in general,” senior Nathan Wasserman said. “If they’re just going to use [the money] on beautification, then it should go somewhere else.”

Parking spots are no longer assigned to students, with the exception of the seniors that paid the additional $10, for the sake of more efficient organization. In previous years, school security guards were attempting to match every car with its own assigned spot and in the event of an issue, security guards would have to search the files and find the license plate number, with unpredictable complications if the student drove a different car that day.

According to Anna Hochkammer, president of the PTSA, the distribution of parking decals is currently suspended due to a complaint made downtown about the increase in the cost for parking passes, so the school is currently searching for a solution with the district. Ms. Menendez was not available for comment prior to publication.

“I do have to say that a $30 unlimited, secured parking pass at Palmetto High School works out to three dollars a month for the entire school year when we live in a city where it costs $1.50 to park in the streets for an hour,” Hochkammer said. “Any teenager that parks in those lots has a family that is probably paying an extra $200 a month to insure them as a driver, so $3 a month for unlimited and secure parking does not seem to be exorbitant in my book. That sounds to me like an absolute steal.”

While Palmetto’s academics remain unrivaled by our recent reevaluation as an “A” school, some schools in our area, such as Coral Reef Senior High, charge no more than $10 for a parking decal; in Miami Southridge High School’s case, offer free parking to all students.

“I believe it is important that the money coming from the decals go to school funds,” senior class Vice President Joshua Benzadon said. “Hopefully the painting of the parking bumpers will boost school spirit and make the senior class feel special since they are the only class allowed to do so.”