Natick Redhawks

I hope that this email finds you rested and enjoying the last few days of summer. I will be sending out my "Welcome Back" letter in the next few days. For now, I wanted to share some important information on student parking.

Prior to this school year, Natick High School student parking was available for juniors and seniors with the purchase of a parking pass. With this pass, student parking was allowed in the lot adjacent to Memorial Field (180 spots, seniors only) and in the lot adjacent to Mahan Field (juniors and seniors, 124 spaces). This provided for 304 total student parking spots, with no more than 124 of the spots going to juniors.

Over the past few years, as our student population increased, so did our demand for student parking. Prior to the last two years, we had not sold out of passes until late spring, if at all. But, in the 24-25 school year, we sold out by March and in the 24-25 school year, we sold out in December.

As a part of our process, we reached out to neighboring districts to see how many student parking spots they had available, and heard back from the following 16 high schools:

Despite our relatively large amount of student parking compared to our neighbors, we have had notable difficulty in our parking lots, which reached a tipping point last year for several reasons.

• Many students who had not purchased parking passes chose to drive to school and park anyway. Some of this was a direct result of passes selling out earlier than they had before. Some students and families planned for their student to drive to school and were intending to purchase a pass; however, when one wasn't available for purchase, the student drove to school as the family had planned anyway.

• Some students who had purchased parking passes chose to park in areas that were not designated for students (i.e. faculty lots, the preschool lot, etc.). Some of this was simply wanting to park closer in bad weather, and some of this was for a variety of other reasons.

As a result, the students who had parking passes, and thus reasonably expected to park, often arrived to find the student lots full, resulting in many students calling the Main Office in search for parking options, and missed instructional time.

This situation was exacerbated in the winter by the large snowfall this year, which limited some parking availability in all of our lots. Consequently, students often “created” spots, blocked parking lot egresses, parked in the DPW lots and/or parked in handicapped spots.

This breakdown of the school parking rules led to unsafe parking lot conditions for everyone and became untenable.

In past school years, students who parked outside the student lots or in the student lots without a pass have been subject to warnings, calls home, detention and loss of privileges. However, in recent years, we have noticed that these consequences have not proved to be a sufficient deterrent.

In addition, while Campus Aide Angel Lebron, and School Resource Officer James O'Shaughnessy support our parking lots, there are five parking areas and only two of them. Plus, SRO O’Shaughnessy has many responsibilities beyond student parking, limiting the time that he can devote to monitoring the lots. So, over the last two years, the student disregard for our parking rules quickly eclipsed the level of enforcement that our resources could provide.

Last year, it became clear that we needed to make a change this year, and we are approaching this problem with a three pronged approach.

• We are limiting the number of students who can reasonably expect to park by eliminating junior passes.

• We are changing the consequences for student parking violations through partnership with Natick Police.

• We are asking for your partnership to make this plan safe and successful.

Only seniors will be permitted to purchase parking passes. Seniors with parking passes may park in either the Memorial Field lot or the Mahan Field lot.

• By saying no juniors can park, we give all seniors a chance to purchase a pass without the number of passes running out.

• We also make it clear that no juniors should expect to park.

If, in January, students are largely adhering to our parking rules, and there are available parking spots, we will be back in touch. If we get to that point, I would consider the following plan:

• Put all juniors' names in a lottery for the available spaces.

• Lottery off the option to purchase based on the number of remaining spots.

• Notify the selected juniors that they have 48 hours to purchase a pro-rated pass, provided they can submit a valid driver’s license. If they declined, the junior next in line would be notified, and so on.

• In the case that juniors were allowed to purchase passes, we would prorate the cost of the pass and we would give a prorated refund for any bus passes purchased.

It is clear that additional parking enforcement and stronger accountability measures may be needed to encourage greater compliance with the school parking rules. This year we will be increasing the monitoring of the lots and administering new consequences.

1. Ticketing

• Students will receive warnings on their cars for the start of school. After that, they will receive tickets from Natick Police. This practice is in line with 40% of the schools that responded to our survey.
• NHS will not be tracking parking violations or calling home.
• NPD will simply be issuing tickets. This will allow us to devote our limited manpower to working with students, rather than the long process of identifying the owner of each inappropriately parked vehicle and moving through a progressive discipline cycle.

• We will communicate with NPD to get the names of “frequent flyers.”
• Seniors, who have a pass, and are still accrue parking violations, will lose their pass without a refund.
• Juniors, who NPD identifies as frequently parking without a pass, will lose the option to purchase a pass in the future.

• Please be advised of Natick’s traffic rules and orders which are available here.
• There is relevant information regarding ticketing, and subsequent towing, that you may want to review with your student driver.

We are asking for your help to maintain safe, predictable parking lots.

• Please talk to your student about safe driving practices. Teens speeding around, frantically looking for parking, especially in the snow, doesn’t lead to good outcomes. Neither does blocking parking lot entrances and exits.

• Please arrange transportation for students who are not permitted to park at school. This is what will ultimately make the greatest difference.

We are grateful for our partnership with Natick Police, and in particular SRO O’Shaughnessy. We could not do this without their help. They have helped us brainstorm and have also helped us secure additional signage for the lots. We are also grateful for your help, as we work together to support our teen drivers.

We are hoping that these changes lead to a safer environment for everyone in our parking lots, especially our students, who will be given a similar message through email and during their grade-level assemblies.

As we embark on these efforts, we will closely monitor these changes, and make adjustments as needed. We will also update you in further communications. If you have a senior, who wishes to purchase a parking pass, please see the instructions below.

Many thanks for your continued partnership and support.

Sincerely,

Josepha Blocker

Principal

Natick High School

We will be holding two dates for in-person parking pass sales prior to the start of the school year. At the following dates and times, Ms. Daigle will be at a table outside of the Athletics entrance to NHS.

• Tuesday, August 18th - 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

• Wednesday, August 19th - 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

During those times, seniors may come themselves, or their caregivers can purchase passes for them. If you/your student cannot come during those dates/times, your senior can purchase a parking pass in the Main Office during the school day, beginning on Wednesday, August 26th.

The items below will be collected at the time of purchase. Please BRING PHOTOCOPIES FOR US TO KEEP. We will not be able to photocopy anything on the day of registration.

1. A copy of the student’s driver’s license
2. A copy of the car registration
3. This FORM filled out and signed by parent/guardian and student
4. $250 - Cash or check made out to to Natick Public Schools

When you receive your parking decal it must be placed as shown:

• Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
• Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
• MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5