As the school year comes to a close the same question starts to brew in everyone’s mind: ‘How will parking spaces be decided for the upcoming year?’ Over the past few years, mostly due to the COVID-19 obstacles, the process to decide parking spots has differed in recent years. 

         With hopes to combat this constant change, Lousie Duprey, the Portsmouth High School grade office secretary for freshmen and juniors, explains how it has been done in years past.

         In late July, an email will be sent out to parents regarding the steps their seniors and juniors should take to ensure they receive a parking spot for the upcoming school year.

This email explains the price of a parking spot, the documents needed to secure the spot, and how the application process works. 

      The first wave of parking spot applications will be sent to the seniors prior to the juniors, (the date is undecided as of now). Once they

have had their few days of seniority the online application will be released to the juniors as well. 

After the spots are filled, an email will be sent out to anyone who obtained a spot with a date to come into the school and pull a parking sticker out of a bowl. This way the spots are randomized and avoids conflict between students and staff. 

Duprey gives a fair warning: “There will be no parking at Tour next year.” This is due to the fact that the business is expanding its restaurant and will need the spots.

She suggests “Finding a close street and legally parking there, or knocking on a surrounding neighbor’s door and asking them if you can pay them to park in their driveway for the school year instead.” 

For those who do not secure a parking spot, and if a car is found in the PHS parking lot without a valid parking sticker, “they will receive a warning for the first offense, and for the second offense, they will be towed without warning,” according to Duprey. It is $250 to have your car returned to you from the towing company. 

Principal Stephen Chinosi verifies that at the moment the plan is to continue with the manner in which parking spaces were managed for the 2022-2023 school year; although this may be up for discussion if a better, more inclusive plan is proposed.

 As of right now, “spots will still be randomized, respecting grade seniority,” according to Chinosi.