On August 12, 2024, Sierra Vista High School opened its doors for the start of the 24-25 school year, but the parking lot was not as open. Over the summer, Principal Mrs. Lovell consulted with CCSD’s Safe Routes to School’s to create a new traffic pattern. As part of the changes, parents are no longer allowed to enter the parking lot, and they must drop off their children along the sidewalk instead. The parking lot now restricts access exclusively to student drivers only. Of the three parking lot entrances, only one remains open with campus security monitors Brett Terry, Martin Ruelas, and Nick Jones on-site to direct traffic. The school hopes this policy will ease congestion and improve safety during peak traffic times in the morning.
Coach Brett Terry, a campus security monitor and morning traffic director, believes the change was made to get students to school in a more efficient manner, and the safest way possible. Coach Terry expresses, “It is much better, much smoother. I know it may not seem like it as kids are pulling up and getting dropped off, but the traffic is dying down at like 6:53 AM right now, so kids are able to get into school on time, and if they’re late it’s really their fault. Whereas, in the past they could totally be justified blaming the parking lot traffic. Now, that traffic is done with 8 minutes left, which is plenty of time for them to get dropped off on the curb and head into school on time.”
Ashlee Kodya (12), a student driver, shares her opinion on the new policy, “The new policy is better, but not perfect yet. It was pretty bumpy the first few days of school, but things have smoothed out. However, now that parents are not allowed in the parking lot, they tend to stop in front of the parking lot entrance to drop their kids off, which blocks student drivers.”
Last week, student drivers received parking passes from Ms. Ventura, Assistant Principal through the Student Success Office. Coach Terry explained that the passes help staff identify the student and verify the car’s registration. While the school encourages students to obtain a parking pass, a student ID can also be used for parking lot access in case someone forgets their pass.
Coach Terry further asks, “Be patient with us, that’s it. It’s Martin and I out there every single day. We are out there at 6:00 AM and we’re just trying to get kids in as quickly and safely as possible. We are just doing our jobs, trying to get everybody onto what they need to do next as safely as they can.”
