The parking situation at MIHS is a frustrating and ongoing problem for both students and the administration. The 2024-25 school year has been the start of a reattempted organization, including assigned spots for seniors and clearer communication. Even so, the issue remains that there are 221 spots available and 373 seniors; only 59.25% of seniors have the chance for a parking spot this school year.
“Parking is always frustrating,” Associate Principal Erica Hill said, “But it is way better this year. And I think it’ll continue to get better.”
There are multiple areas for students to park. This includes near the bus barn in front of Crest, Northwood, Carpool spots (in which students can sign up to drive multiple households), C-lot, and of course the infamous strip. Strip is side street parking about a five to ten-minute walk to the entrance of the high school, depending on how far up you park. Similar to camping outside a concert for access to the front row, kids must get to the school extremely early if they want a spot close to the school. This space is also shared with churches that run along the road, and students’ parallel parking skills are frequently put to the test. Unless you get a C-lot or carpool pass, it is quite the trek to the school and this especially worsens once we get deep into the cold and rainy days of the Pacific Northwest. Some students don’t mind the walk and others don’t drive at all, taking the bus, getting dropped off, walking, or biking, but no matter the situation, parking at MIHS is far from ideal.
“I love my spot because it’s closest to the school,” senior Katie Kolpa, who has a C-lot spot, said.
Last school year, there was a form sent out to all juniors that asked multiple questions about parking. “We really listen to our student voice,” Hill said. The majority of students decided on assigned parking spots, including a physical pass that you hang from your car mirror.
The form to request a parking spot was also sent out before the school year ended. The school hosted a Fees and Photos Day when August came around again and seniors were to attend on the morning of the first day. This is where parking passes were distributed, and many students who wanted to ensure their pass came early and got first in line. But the ‘best’ passes were not handed out first.
“The first people to sign up and get their passes got the worst spot,” senior Brady Riffle said.
The spots near the Crest building were distributed first, and once those ran out, C-lot passes were handed out, and so on. Students who filled out the form as soon as it was sent out, and arrived on time or early to pick passes up, still ended up with spots they personally weren’t happy with. This assumed first-come, first-serve situation upset many students and the administration made it clear that they are working on better communicating with students.
Despite a rough start for some, having assigned spots has proven to make some processes much easier. Students know where they should be parking and clearly know if someone is in the wrong spot. They can simply snap a picture of the car and show it to the main office or Courtney Taylor, who is in charge of parking, and then the situation can be dealt with. This organization has helped the staff immensely in dealing with the previous problem of students parking along fire curbs, admin spots and any other place they could find. But, this doesn’t mean that students have completely stopped parking in the wrong areas.
“I didn’t want to park in Northwood, so I’ve been parking in random spots,” senior Vihaan Tandon said.
As mentioned earlier, Mrs. Hill said she believed the assigned spots made parking much better this school year. But, the man who deals with parking believes otherwise. “The tickets are up this year compared to last year,” Taylor said.
In any case, the first infraction for parking in the wrong spot is a $50 ticket. From there, it increases in price to $75 for a second offense and up to $100 for a third. These prices may seem intimidating, but there are many ways to deal with these tickets. “Tickets are pretty regular. If the student wants to work it off, they can work off one of them,” Taylor said. A reflection time, including helping stack chairs with the custodians will come into effect soon, but for now, one ticket, preferably the highest one a student has, can still be worked off. The purpose of making students work to pay off a ticket is to allow them to learn their lesson and hopefully not continue parking in the wrong spot.
When asked if having assigned spots was a good idea for this school year, Taylor gave a practical response. “I don’t think any decision is good because there’s just not enough parking spots,” Taylor said.
This struggle has been dealt with for years and will continue to be a problem for future high school students on Mercer Island, even if different policies are tested out.
“I think we need more parking and unfortunately, we’re an island and we don’t have any more space. It would be a dream to be able to do underground parking,” Hill said.
Maybe one day Mercer Island High School will have an intricate, useful (and probably extremely expensive) parking garage. But for now, students and staff are working with what they have and are doing their best to work through an inadequate situation.
