With the closing of the long lot for availability of student parking and fluctuating pass prices in the past few years, students who drive to school may not be clear on general information about parking.

In the 2012-2013 school year, passes were forty-five dollars a quarter, while last year the cost was forty-five for the whole year and finally this year rising to fifty a semester. This year, they began with 185 parking passes which has diminished to three as of Sept. 15, according to the student office.

Mary Quinn works as the parking lot monitor for the past ten years. Her job is to make sure students and staff have parking permits visible in the front window of the cars. Quinn said most students have complied if they have received violations this school year and not many have been towed.

“If they don’t have a parking permit they get a warning and then they get two warnings and on the third time if they park without a permit they are towed,” Quinn said. “This year they are really enforcing that there will be towing”

In past years, students have parked without buying passes, leading to a shortage of parking space. This lead to administration suspending parking in the long lot and in the circle lot beside the circle doors.

Due to these issues, areas where students can park have changed as well as prices for parking passes. Kari Schwietering, the assistant principal, explains where the money goes when a student buys a parking pass.

“There were a variety of issues with parking last year,” Schwietering said. “Part of the increase is also that we have to pay tax on the actual permits…we have a [parking pass monitor] and part of it is upkeep of the parking lot .”

According to Quinn, there has been a decrease in these parking issues including being in the wrong lot, not visibly displaying parking passes and more.

“The additional monitoring and the support that I’ve gotten for the offenders the people who don’t have their permits has been getting a lot better,” Quinn said.”If they get their car towed it is usually over two-hundred dollars to get it back, it’s just cheaper to get a permit.”

Junior Ben Chong drives to school and said although the prices are fair, they should make the long lot available for parking again.

“They should open the long lot again because people who had parking passes occasionally did not get spots because the parking lot was always full,” said Chong.

Students should take caution to not park in the long lot nor specific spots reserved for traveling teachers who switch school buildings throughout the day, but parking is available in the lot by the circle doors from the tennis courts to the grass.

“Actually parking in the lot [by the circle doors] is good. It always takes a little while for everybody to learn,to get their permit and get their parking spaces,” Quinn said.