A new semester at Park brings the renewal of parking permits for the student parking lot. However, some are concerned with how the school enforces parking policies.

Junior Richie Stoeckel said he’s parked his car in the lot before without a permit.

“I have parked in the parking lot without a pass, and I did not get in trouble for that,” Stoeckel said. “It went unnoticed.”

Assistant principal Kari Schwietering said 185 parking permits are available for students. Permits cost $50 and the money goes to parking lot maintenance.

The student handbook states the first two times a car is found in the student lot without a permit, a warning slip is put on the car. The third time a car violates the policy, the car is towed.

“We sell permits by semester, and they’re sold first-come-first-serve, so the first day of the semester, students were coming in and some parents and buying them,” said Schwietering. “First semester, we didn’t run out of them until it was at least a couple of weeks into the semester.”

Mary Quinn, who monitors the parking lots, said she checks permits daily.

“I usually just drive really slow and check each row, and if there is something I can’t see, I get out of my car and check. I also not only check for permits, but for the safety of the cars for flat tires; lights left on,” Quinn said.

Schwietering said parking permits should be enforced to be fair to students who paid.

“If we aren’t going (to enforce the permits) then we should just open it up to anybody,” Schwietering said. “It doesn’t seem fair if there are students that are paying and other students who are parking all the time there anyways.”

Senior Ketki Hotaling said permits should be tracked.

“(With) going to college next year, $50 is really expensive, so those of us who actually spent the money to get the parking passes, it’s only fair that they should get (spots in the lot),” Hotaling said. “While I understand that some people might not be able to afford them, there’s parking spots right over along the roads.”