On Aug. 16, junior Maxwell Koehler was backing up in the junior practice field parking lot when his car suddenly crashed into another car that lay just a few feet from him. As a result his back bumper was dislodged and his right rear brake light broken. The other car that was involved in the crash had its back bumper scratched up and one of its rear tail lights shattered.
“I’ve never crashed my car, never gotten close to crashing my car,” Koehler said. “I’ve backed up the same way every single time [but] this parking lot is so bad it feels like an airplane where they cram 500 people into a super small tiny area.”
Because of the year-long construction of the Nochur Sankar Science Center, the parking and drop off/pick up system had to be signifcantly altered. Some of these first alterations included juniors having to park in the practic field, sixth graders having to be dropped off behind the middle school, and seventh grade and up having to be dropped off in front of the DAC. However, there were conflicting feelings among students, parents, and teachers about the new parking system.
“As a junior, I feel like I have to walk half a mile to my car every single day, especially because I have theater practice after school,” Koehler said. “I get mud all over my shoes and on my car because the parking lot is just awful.”
Some parents also felt that the parking system can be a burden when picking up and dropping off.
“From the traffic light… to the drop off area, it’s around 15 minutes to get there,” seventh grade parent Franklin Adrianza said.
Because of this delay, parents felt that it took a toll on their children’s sleep and themselves.
“[The] earlier you get up in the morning, you don’t sleep well so you have to go to bed earlier,” Adrianza said. “[It requires] more effort [from] us parents to try to get up earlier and the kids to get ready earlier.”
While students and parents felt like the new system was flawed in some aspects, some teachers found it more convenient than ever with assigned parking lots.
“I find that coming in the mornings is a lot smoother than it was in the past,” Science Department Chair Dr. Romina Jannotti said. “As a staff member, this is a lot more efficient in the morning because I know exactly where I have to park. I don’t have to spend my time in the morning searching for a place.”
Taking the views of parents, students, and teachers into consideration, administration has made two main changes to the system.
“We did start with sixth grade only dropping off behind the middle school,” Associate Head of School Dennis Herron said. “After monitoring the [drop off] for two or three days [though], we realized that the flow with the sixth grade was better than we anticipated. So we added seventh grade [to the drop off/pick up behind the middle school].”
Another change that has been made to the system is crosswalk duty. A number of Trinity’s administrators perform crosswalk duty in the parking lot or drop off/pick up points on specialized days to ensure that students are crossing safely and that parking rules are being followed.
“This is a duty I didn’t have to do in the past,” Jannotti said. “But I’m glad to do it because we want to make sure that kids don’t get hurt coming in from the parking lot in the morning.”
Along with these changes, Trinity is working to find new ways to better manage the system. Director of Security Anthony Maldonado keeps in contact with Seminole County Traffic Engineering to ensure there is an open line of communication between the county and the school. On Sept. 11, new parking instructions for juniors were released: students must now only park in the middle rows of their designated lot. This was done to ensure safety when pulling in and out of the parking spaces.
“It’s been a learning curve for those of us who designed it and are trying to manage it,” Herron said. “It’s been a learning curve for those who are driving to campus, both parents, students and faculty.”
