Lack of parking causes student complaints

Diego Marcucci
Staff Writer

Due to construction and staff priorities, there are 50 less parking spaces in the Costa student parking lot as complated to last year.

Last year, 220 parking passes were guaranteed for students before the school year began, but the administration later changed it to only 200 passes. This year, the administration shortened the amount of spaces from 200 to 150.

“This issue is wholly to do with the construction, and first priority for parking goes to the teachers and staff, and the last priority goes to the students,” Vice Principal Ian Drummond said. “We have lost some spaces permanently because the new building took up close to half the parking lot.”

With construction all over campus, the administration is having trouble arranging parking for students, according to Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla.

“We have 150 spaces that we could assure to the students,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said. “We want to gradually try and add more this year as they become available.”

Although passes were issued to seniors and juniors, many of these students do not use their assigned space. On Sept. 4 and 5, the staff was finding unused parking spaces so they could be reassigned to new students.

“We issued 100 to seniors and 50 to juniors,” Mancilla said. “We offered some to juniors because not all of our seniors are buying them or using them, which is why we’re not gonna make them exclusive to seniors.”

With Mira Costa allowing its students to live as far east as Inglewood Boulevard, a lot of kids drive to school and rely on Costa having available parking spaces. Many students also face the problem of being late to their first period class due to the lack of parking spaces.

“Parking can’t be an excuse for tardiness,” math teacher Kelly Donovan said. “Leave early and give yourself time.”