Preparing to leave after the school day, sophomore Will Carter is one of 40 sophomores to have gotten the privilege to drive to school and park alongside the juniors in the pit for the rest of the year.

The administration analyzed the number of open spaces available for use by the sophomore class in the junior parking lot over the past three months. Beginning Nov. 3, 40 sophomores are allowed to park alongside the juniors in the pit.

“It’s awesome having a parking pass now. I used have to wait a long time for my parents to come pick me up after sports, but now I can drive myself to and from school without having to wait,” sophomore Maggie Hulen said.

In order to be part of the drawing for the parking pass, Hulen had to turn in an application, a parking expectations agreement and pay $52.

“A 90 percent attendance rate is required. We check every six weeks to make sure those students with the privilege to park are meeting this requirement. If they aren’t, then they will be put on probation. If their attendance rate has gone up after the next six weeks, then they are no longer on probation. If their attendance rate has not gone up, then they have the possibility of losing their parking pass,” Sophomore Class Principal Dr. Beth Middendorf said.

As long as this, and other requirements about citizenship and fines are met Hulen, along with her peers, will be allowed to park in the pit for the rest of the year alongside the juniors.

“As long as they stay in their designated spots, then we won’t have any issues. I’ve already paid my time for having to walk all the way up from the pit in the winter. It’s their turn,” junior Sarah O’Beirne said.

There are no actual parking assignments in the pit. Instead, it is simply understood that juniors have priority on the parking spaces closest to the school.

“If we have to share the pit with the sophomores, then it’s nice to have something to be able to assert our being upperclassmen over them,” O’Beirne said.

Other than parking spaces, the only other issue is O’Beirne is worried about is after school traffic.

“The extra cars from the sophomores will probably cause an even larger back up after school. It’s already backed up enough with the juniors,” O’Beirne said.

Despite the traffic and parking spaces superiority issue, Middendorf noticed the enthusiasm about the new privileges.

“It was fun to see all the sophomores coming in to get their parking passes. I’ve never seen so many sophomores in my office at one time. You could see the excitement in their faces,” Middendorf said.