The parking situation at McNeil is quite disorganized due to the poor system the school has enforced. Currently, parents park in the student parking lot and the pick-up line goes along the school parking lot. Although this system seems efficient in theory, it’s troublesome. By parents picking up students in the student parking lot, they disrupt the flow of traffic and make leaving campus harder than it has to be. 

Right now, parents take spots that could be used by students. Since only one gate is open, the entire school population, with the exception of bus riders, exit through one gate. School personnel have tried their best to better manage traffic flow by directing cars to the right areas and ensuring both sections of the parking lot have an equal amount of people leaving the parking lot. However, even with this system, parents are still impatient and try anything to leave school faster, including parking in the senior lot to skip a section of the line. There are solutions to the problem that is parent parking, and they need to be implemented.

One solution to the problem is opening the gate on the other side of the parking lot, close to the Raymond E. Hartfield Performing Arts Center (PAC). Opening the other gate will allow cars to leave faster and lessen the severity of traffic jams before and after school. If the school opens this second gate, it will allow parents to leave through one exit while students leave through another, benefiting both groups. Although the buses do leave through this way as well, opening the gate until the buses leave would still be a beneficial change.

If opening the gate isn’t a viable solution, parents could park in the PAC next to the school. This is the same system that was implemented last year and it was much more efficient because parents and students alike were able to leave quickly. The system seemed to move faster and the exit was smoother than it is this year. Last year, only one exit was open, so opening two would only increase the speed at which everyone could leave the campus.

The parking situation is in desperate need of some changes in order to ensure the organization of students and parents. The changes that need to be made don’t require additional school expenditure and in fact, the possible solutions prove to be efficient based on previous years.