At LHS there are roughly 1,886 students. Of these students, about half, or 941, can or do drive to school every day. The school provides three different parking lots that are available to park in. This includes A-wing, E-wing and Arcadia. Still, even with this amount of parking not all students can find a spot. This requires them to utilize side streets located on the east side of the building by the tennis courts. The issue with this is that the majority of the streets are deemed as two hour parking only.

As frustrating and time-consuming as it already may be to find a parking spot, the city should not have two hour parking right next to the school. Some students have attempted to park on these streets, but tickets are quickly given out to anyone who does not obey the signs. The overflow parking is meant to be in Arcadia, the lot across the street. Many students take advantage of this extra lot, but still it fills up quickly and adds an unnecessarily long walk to the front of the building. There needs to be another option for students who cannot find an available spot to park their car.

By allowing students to park on the side streets, they will be able to focus better in school instead of worrying about their car being ticketed. As well as save both their money and time from paying off tickets and walking a long distance to the school. Students are not the only people who find the parking situation to be an inconvenience:

“I am frustrated that the city has two hour parking on school days on the streets down by the tennis courts,” said LHS teacher Michael. Jones. “The people that live in those areas are getting preferential treatment by the city at the expense of students of LHS. I would much rather a student legally park on those streets and come to school instead of worrying about having to move their car every two hours or skipping school. If education is important to our society then someone parking in front of your home on a public street should not warrant special treatment.” By allowing students to park on the side streets many issues will be solved.

Every problem has a solution that can go with it. For example, the city of Sioux Falls could make adjustments to the two hour parking regulation. This could be altered by changing the times to work with the daily school hours, allowing students to park there the duration of school. The regulations could then reapply themselves after the school day and on the weekends.