The Eagle Eye Newspaper

By Emery Lewis, Opinion Editor

Senior year not only marks a student’s last months in high school, but it also brings special opportunities and privileges to the graduating class. Seniors can look forward to events like senior ball, senior ditch day, senior sunrise and senior sunset. Seniors are also given opportunities like open periods and for many years they have had the chance to have their very own parking spot in the senior lot where they could decorate their spot however they chose.

Any senior who would want a spot would pay $60, and if the amount of students that applied for a spot exceeds the amount of parking spots available, which is 64, then those students would be entered into a raffle to determine who receives a spot.

The Senior parking lot was one of the highest earning fundraisers for the senior class, which goes towards all the events they have to celebrate their final year in high school. In previous years the fundraiser had raised over $5,000. 

In recent months the San Juan Unified District had sent out a message to all high schools stating that they can no longer sell spots due to equity gaps. This means that since all students cannot afford to pay for a spot it is unfair for spots to be sold. Other schools were also having issues with not enough student parking and students having problems with honoring the policies of the parking spots. 

Though the district is banning the selling of spots to ensure that no student feels like the system is unfair, they are causing other issues in doing so. Taking away this funderaser from all schools will affect each school differently. For schools like Rio Americano who have a higher enrollment rate and almost half the socioeconomically disadvantaged students compared to the EC, taking away this funderaser won’t be as much of an issue. Although they did receive around 17,000 from last year’s parking spot fundraiser, they have more spots available and charged $120 for a spot. They easily are able to get more donations, or hold larger fundraisers compared to schools like El Camino. 

EC already has a hard time holding large fundraisers because we have less students and less opportunity to get donations since over 50% of the student body is at a socioeconomic disadvantage. Fundraisers are an extremely important factor in allowing schools to have the ability to put on events for the student body. Yes, some students may not be able to afford a spot but taking away this fundraiser can cause schools like EC to lose the ability to put on events similar or to the same standard as other schools which becomes unfair and removes the original purpose of the district’s argument of trying to create more equity. 

Instead of completely banning the selling of parking spots, the district should implement a set of guidelines or rules for every school to follow. If the district is concerned about students not being able to afford a spot, then providing a set price for spots to be sold that is affordable to the majority of students would provide an easy solution.

If more guidelines were set by the district to help prevent or combat the equity issues instead of choosing to disregard any solutions, there would be little reason to completely take away a widely enjoyed and important event in schools. 

If one or two schools were having more problems than the rest of the district, taking action towards those schools and making adjustments for those schools would result in creating more equality.

Another large benefit of assigned parking spots in the senior lot is the amount of time that is saved getting to class in the mornings because they don’t have to worry about finding a place to park and the senior lot is located closer to the entrance of the halls. However, some schools have had issues with students who don’t have their own spot, parking in a spot that is currently assigned to someone else. If there were to be consequences in place for students who chose not to honor the system, the likelihood of people choosing to park in a spot that doesn’t belong to them would decrease. 

Another part of the fundraiser that many students look forward to is the freedom they have to paint their spot however they chose. This allows the seniors to have their very own personalized piece of the school for their final year attending it. 

Taking this away from the upcoming senior classes has left disappointment in a lot of the student body since this has been a tradition looked forward to from the start of their freshmen year. 

Student Government is now left to find a replacement for the fundraiser that will hopefully bring in a similar amount of money to make up for the loss. If next year there is not enough money raised, that senior class will face the majority of consequences and potentially have to sacrifice having a proper senior ball. 

For this new restriction set by the district to be retracted or reconsidered, students will have to petition at school board meetings that allow open comment from students.