FAYETTEVILLE -- Parking will be at a premium this fall, even after renovations to Fayetteville High School are complete.
Next year's seniors can pick up their permits for the 2015-16 school year beginning at 7 a.m. today. School administrators will distribute remaining permits on a first-come, first-serve basis to incoming juniors the following week. Sophomores and a new class of 600 to 700 freshmen will not be allowed to park on campus.
Fayetteville School Board
The school board is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Ray Adams Leadership Center, 1000 Bulldog Blvd.
Source: Staff report
As in years past, there won't be enough permits to accommodate all of the students who want one.
School district officials hope a new option -- a satellite parking lot next to the Fayetteville Public Library -- will help alleviate the problem.
And, as in years past, students likely will be able to buy parking permits in the University of Arkansas' Lot 56, but only during the spring semester, once the football season is over and the Razorbacks marching band no longer uses the lot for morning practices.
"It's going to be a challenge," said Mark White, Fayetteville High School's dean of students. "We're doing the best we can. We think we have a plan that's going to utilize the parking situation the best we can for students, faculty and staff."
White said the high school will begin the 2015-16 school year with nearly 700 parking spaces. That's roughly 70 more spaces than this school year. The new spaces will be on the west side of the school, an area that has been used as staging for Nabholz Construction Services during the renovation project.
The west lot and two lots closest to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the south side of the school will have about 200 spaces, but those will be reserved for faculty and staff.
Remaining spaces in the lot north of the high school will provide parking for a fraction of the 2,400 students expected to enroll at the high school this fall.
"Stressful" was the word Leslie Corbell used to describe the parking situation at the high school.
Corbell paid for her daughter, a recent graduate, to park in a private lot on the east side of Buchanan Street for two years. She said the lot provided a safe, convenient way for her daughter to get to her car -- especially on nights when a bus from tennis matches didn't return to the school until well after dark.
Corbell said she's taking her chances with her son, however, a soon-to-be junior, hoping he's among those who's able to get an on-campus parking permit.
"If he doesn't get one, I don't know what I'm going to do," Corbell said.
Terri Mallioux paid $500 this year for her son, a sophomore, to park in a 24-space gravel lot at 324 S. Buchanan St. Prices in the lot for the 2015-16 school year range from $495 to $600.
Spaces in the FHS lot cost $50. Gary Smith, director of university Transit and Parking, said a permit for Lot 56 bought in the third week of January this year cost high school students $30.79 -- the same price university students would have paid.
Mallioux said she hates spending the extra money, but, she added, "If I'm not going to pay it, someone else will."
"I never thought I'd say it, but that ended up being the best $500 I ever spent," Mallioux said. "In hindsight, there's been many a night where there's been events at school where you can't find parking, and we use that spot. It's been extremely handy."
Walking or riding a bike is not really an option for her son, Mallioux said, because her family lives on the east side of town. And the school's bus schedule conflicts with extracurricular activities.
"Yes, I could (drop him off)," she added, "but, from what I've been told, the traffic there is so chaotic there in the morning the last thing I want to do is add another car to it."
The school district this week announced another option parents in Mallioux's situation might be able to use.
Washington Regional Medical Center and the Fayetteville Public Library have agreed to let students park for free in 100 spaces in the old City Hospital parking lot south of the library, 495 W. Mountain St.
From there, students can walk or bike three quarters of a mile to the high school, or they can catch a bus running between the two locations.
"It's an alternative drop-off to help alleviate congestion around the high school, and it's also an opportunity to encourage biking and walking to and from the school," Dana Smith, the school district's sustainability coordinator, said Friday.
Bobby Smith, FHS assistant principal, said by email Friday details of the library partnership -- and new plans for parent pick-up and drop-off at the high school -- are still being worked out. Smith said he intends to discuss options with the Fayetteville School Board at the board's meeting Thursday.
NW News on 04/20/2015