The brand new Woodford County High School building is nothing short of incredible. In the short time I have spent here, I have grown to appreciate the efforts of our community for making this happen, especially in time for my class to take part. The community and staff here in Woodford County spent the majority of winter break moving everyone in, hoping to start class as soon as possible in the new building. While I am excited to be here, it’s no secret that the move was rushed.
Within the final week of the first semester, administration told students that they were expected to stop by the office and pick up their brand new “parking pass” in preparation for the move to the new building. A parking pass is a visual slip that students and staff put in their vehicles in order to signify that they are not trespassing on campus. Each parking pass labels a number that matches to a specific spot in which it corresponds. When I went to grab my parking pass before break, I was told I would be parking in the staff lot this year, as I was amongst the “trusted students” here at Woodford.
Initially, I was honored to hear this news. At the old school, the staff parking lot was easily accessible, as well as closer to the doors than the student parking lot. As a “trusted student” I was only expecting the best experience. This unfortunately was not the case.
Arriving on the first day at the new school was a nightmare. I was quick to realize that the student parking lot was easily accessible despite the conflicting middle school traffic. Turning onto Schoolhouse, the WCHS student parking lot is just a stop sign away. The staff lot, however, is a whole other story.
A couple stop signs will lead staff lot parkers to the most heinous congestion of all: the parent drop-off line. While most students are able to ease in to their spot on a busy morning, myself and a selective few others wait 10-20 minutes sandwiched between this line. There is absolutely no other way than this to enter the lot, and I blame this poor blueprint on the initial rush to get us all moved in.
This lack of fairness unfortunately does not stop here. Considering that the parent drop-off line wraps around the entirety of the staff parking lot, students rushing to get to school have to wait at a crosswalk for parent traffic to halt. Across the street, students that park in the regular student lot can safely and efficiently walk in to school with no parent traffic in the way. This is both dangerous and unfair.
The new Woodford County High School is an incredible acheivement that our community has not seen in decades. Obviously, the good outweighs the bad. I reserve the purpose to point out its flaws, however, to improve the quality, fairness, and safety of WCHS in the coming years.
