Recently, more parking spots in the Senior Lot became available to seniors due to a reassignment of other previously reserved parking spaces and students not meeting criteria for parking spot eligibility.

CHS senior parking lots are filled by seniors who have won the parking lottery or were selected as alternates and then later received spots.

According to Business Administrator Lisa Wellek, the lottery is conducted because “parking spaces in the lot are very limited.”

Each May, eligible seniors are able to participate in a parking lottery to potentially receive a parking spot. To be eligible for a CHS parking spot, seniors must have a valid driver’s license, be academically eligible, be absent of all financial obligations and have completed all SSL hours prior to the senior parking lottery.

“Alternates are selected in the event students decide against purchasing a parking permit or fail to meet the criteria,” Wellek said.

According to Wellek, there are also limited number of reserved parking spots available for students in the Internship or Montgomery College Dual Enrollment Programs.

To decide who would get to park in the newly available spots, administration and security recently conducted an additional parking lottery of seniors with street parking passes, and then contacted the seniors who had won that lottery. Those seniors needed to have exchanged their street parking passes to be able to park in the Lot.

“I felt really happy because I didn’t need to worry about coming to school so early to ‘steal’ a street parking spot,” senior Emma Jin, who recently received a parking spot, said. “But I was also slightly annoyed due to the timing of the announcement.”

According to Wellek, instead of selecting 10 alternates in the Spring Senior Lottery, there will be 20 in order to prevent this delay from occurring in future years.