After long discussions on ways to solve the limited parking problem at Tracy High, the City Council decided to wait 60 days because they recognized that the solution of the Pilot Permit Parking Program was maybe not the best way to solve the problem.

The Pilot Permit Parking Program is a program where a person must have a permit in order to park in the neighborhood areas. If a person did not have a permit, they would be ticketed for parking in the neighborhood.

The City Council wants to see if the school, the school district, and the neighbors can solve the parking problem on their own.

One way the school district is doing to address this issue is by establishing a parking committee that consists of students and administrators.

“What the committee does is find solutions that the neighbors will compromise with,” social studies teacher Dr. Steven Drouin said. “We even sent out a survey to every Tracy High student to better understand the extent of the parking problem.”

Suggestions on ways to solve the parking problem include building a parking structure, buying land, and talking to the city about buying land at the park.

“I think they could build a parking area or a parking garage in the back fields of Tracy High,” senior Dalton Gualco said.

There are many suggestions, but they come with issues like cost and the difficulties of buying land.

“Another problem is that Tracy High is surrounded and there is no place to put anything,” Drouin said. “There are a lot of choices and the school district needs help prioritizing and figuring out which of those choices is the best solution.”

Also, the district is communicating with neighbors to understand what the problems are so they can be addressed.

“Residents claim that all the students do is litter and cause trouble, but a lot of students just need a parking spot to get to school on time,” Gualco said.

The district wants to know what type of problems the neighbors are having and what solution would fit best to the situation.

“We know the neighbors are upset, but are unsure about the reason why,” Drouin said. “Right now, we don’t know how to do something about that, so they are in process of trying to understand what the neighbors see what the problem is.”

After the school district understands how the neighbors feel, the district will come up with a plan. For example, neighbors are upset because of littering, moving the trashcans, and using their driveways as a turnout. The district will submit the plan to the city council saying the concerns were worked on with the neighbors and show what they are going to do.

“Right now, we are trying to work with the neighbors and have the students that park there, keep it clean, and keep it nice, so everything works out alright,” Principal Jason Noll said.

Having the students involved has made an impact in this parking decision. The city council wanted to honor the fact that the students began to speak up, so they were receptive to letting students speak in the meetings, as well as listen to students voices and being a partner to the students.

“Having the students involved is cool, but intimidating,” Drouin said. “It would have been easy for the school to come up with the decisions, but now students are involved to come up with solutions on this issue.”

Senior Sabrina Briggs agrees that this is an important issue that must be solved.

“It shows students that if you voice your opinion, you will be heard,” Briggs said. “As someone who spoke at the City Council meeting, it was important because I was able to express the opinion of the students at Tracy High.”

There is much skepticism about what the end result might be. The City Council may agree with the permit parking policy regardless of what the students and district have been doing, but the good is that the end result will please the neighbors and the students.

“I told my students that democracy is slow. I think it’s great, but it’s really slow and time consuming,” Drouin said. “It’s also challenging to bring everyone together and honor everyone’s perspectives. I am pleased in some ways, and in other ways it’s really frustrating.”

Gualco feels that this issue is strongly rooted in our school and is essential to the students of Tracy High.

“I feel like it was a good start, but it’s not finished,” Gualco said. “The seniors did a good job at persuading the city council to push back the parking permit deadline, but now it’s more of the juniors and the sophomores responsibility to finish the parking situation.”

Parking has been an issue at Tracy High for years and it is important to come up with a solution to benefit the neighbors and the students.

“Parking has been a problem at Tracy High for about 40 years,” Noll said. “It’s important we address this because if the city does put a restriction in the neighborhoods, where will the students park? It is our job to help find a solution to this ongoing problem.”