As Montgomery county continues to grow, the diversity grows alongside it. With renovations around every corner, school’s moving from one building to another and weather impacting everyone differently, the county has faced a lot of backlash for some of the decisions they’ve made. With Damascus being such an isolated high school, we often lose sight of how everything is different for different high schools. Damascus loves to say their parking lot is tough or small but based on some of these numbers, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Here is a deep dive into the diversity of student parking. Every school’s business administrator was reached out to and the information below is what they provided.
School by School:
Damascus High School:
Damascus offers student parking lot spots by a permit system on a first come first serve basis and accessing necessity. This year Damascus sold 191 spots across two lots. Students fill out a Google form and then after they get approved, they pay and receive the pass. This year, the school introduced assigned parking spots that correspond to the number on the parking pass. Students had to line up before the first day of school in numerical order based on the spot they wanted. Damascus has an overflow lot which is currently completely sold out. The school has a pretty big problem with students without passes trying to park in passed spots and leaving that problem to security, who tags and tows as necessary.
Damascus overall has a lot more cars than they have room for, leaving students to park across the street in the Weis parking lot and cross Bethesda Church Road to get to school. Damascus offers open lunch where most seniors leave for the day and do not come back, leading to a lot of unpassed juniors to move their cars into the main lot in those open senior spots. The biggest problem of “spot stealing” happens in the overflow parking lot, where those who have their spots taken end up having to park in the bus lane, exposed. Damascus offers both semester and year round parking passes but due to being sold out this year, it is unlikely they sold any for the second semester.
Wheaton High School and Thomas Edison High School:
Both high schools are housed on the same campus and neither school offers any form of student parking. According to contact Sandy Spruill, who is the Wheaton’s business administrator, they do not even have enough room for all staff so they cannot offer anything to students at this time.
Gaithersburg High School:
Gaithersburg has 129 spots they sell total, 79 on campus and 50 in a lot adjacent where that company keeps the profits. They have a Google form that students fill out and once approved and payment is complete, they receive their pass. At the school itself, it seems they have changed the parking area recently to make it easier for students to get where they need to be. The school does not assign spots on property and it is first come first serve on a daily basis. On the off campus location however, spots are assigned.
Rockville High School:
Rockville has 117 spots they sell. They are sold on a semester by semester basis and accept forms from seniors for two days before they open it up to juniors. They continue to sell until all 117 spots are sold. They have assigned spots that are numbered to match the spots on the permit, similar to Damascus and the permits are assigned in the order the applications are received. In terms of people parking in other’s spot, they are strict on the warning and then they tow. They also continue to monitor campus for unsafe driving as that is grounds for a permit being revoked.
Richard Montgomery High School:
Being located in the center of a city and dealing with portables and staff, this school only offers 30 on campus spots. They have an agreement with the city of Rockville to have ownership of 15 metered spots, bringing the total to 45 spots. They give out passes to students with above a 2.0 GPA and who are dual enrollment, without any parking violations or obligation and they also look at medical necessity. They sell by semester and applications are numbered and reviewed in the order they are submitted.
Col. Zadok Magruder High School:
Magurder structures their parking lot similar to the way Damascus previously had it, where it’s first come first serve on a daily basis. Forms are accepted and gone through and once everything looks good, the student receives their pass and can go about their day. From what was communicated by the school business administrator, Nicole Kimball, they have enough parking to go around and don’t seem to struggle with not having enough spaces for cars. Although there wasn’t a direct number because the spots aren’t numbered, it can be estimated that the lot is around the size of Damascus, maybe even bigger. They follow the same strict program Rockville does with the sticker for a parking violation and then straight to towing.
Thomas S. Wootton High School:
Wootton serves everyone on a first come first serve basis, which seems to be pretty popular across the county. Students are not permitted to park on school grounds without a permit.
Quince Orchard High School:
Quince Ochrard serves everyone on a first come first serve basis, with no assigned spots at all. They, however, issue 10 dollar parking fines to students that park on campus without a parking pass.
Northwood High School:
Northwood numbers and assigns spots accordingly, most likely meaning in the order they are received. Northwood implements a system that I have not seen yet, having security frequently rounding the parking lot and exterior perimeter. If a vehicle doesn’t have a parking permit, and this applies to both student and staff spots, the security team will check online to see if the vehicle is registered through the school. They have all visitors register their vehicles through a QR code located in the front office and staff there remind them as well. If the vehicle is not registered or permitted, a warning sticker will be placed on the windshield and security will make note of it and continue to monitor. After two warnings, the vehicle is subject to be towed. Vehicles in assigned student spots without prior communication that are unmarked are also subject to towing.
Sherwood High School:
Sherwood sells 300 spots across multiple lots, all on school grounds. They assign permits on a first come first serve basis and the application is a google form, similar to a lot of the other schools. While they do not assign people to exact spots, they assign them to lots and the students must figure it out amongst themselves in said lots. Any student who parks in the staff lot or without a permit will be given a citation and they follow MCPS guidelines on tickets, violation stickers and towing.
Walt Whitman High School:
Whitman sells 270 spots. They have a unique process, where seniors fill out a google form about a month before school starts. They double check to make sure a student doesn’t have any financial obligations and both the student and guardian have to sign for the permit. They also look for students with abbreviated schedules to make sure they can get spots. The process runs into the first week of school and can take about a month. They only sell semester spots, so the process repeats itself again in December/January. They follow a two warning ticket system, with security keeping photographs and 10 dollar parking fines. Students who abuse the parking lot as sophomores/juniors may not be allowed to apply as a senior for a parking spot. The spaces themselves are not assigned, so it’s a first come first serve on a daily basis.
As we can see, the county has a lot of different ways to deal with parking. Every school wants to complain that their parking lot is the worst and that one one has it worse than them, but as we can see from the numbers, it could always be worse. Students could have no parking, or very limited parking and yet they complain about the 100+ spots their school has. Looking at it all, it really puts it into perspective how lucky Damascus is to have the parking that we do.
