The screechings of the danger zone, otherwise known as the Summit High School parking lot; were those tires, or the loud opinions of Summit students?

The previous parking lot system — built from mutual respect and tradition — clearly could not contain the Storm, calling for a harsher system’s installation on April 21, thanks to humble campus monitors Mike Price and JR Rombach.

The buildup of the mere amount of parking violations issued alongside angered students finally broke through. Thank you for your service, grass-parkers and fire-lane-blockers, thank you loud students, thank you reckless drivers (satire).

The new “morning meet-and-greet” system kindly turns around students without passes, allowing in only upperclassmen with parking passes and parents or visitors. The less-lenient-but-still-leniant new system includes monitors photographing vehicles without passes in the lot and leaving them with a sticker reminding them of the rule for the millionth time, followed by a $35 fine for a second parking offense. 

“It felt like I was getting let into an exclusive club,” said Storm junior Rynn Van Meter. “Finally our opinions were being heard,” she continued, explaining how the new system removed a great deal of stress from her day which she and so many other students alike had grown greatly accustomed to.

The parking lot has always and forever been a famous issue at Summit High School, the Storm’s very own sweet tradition. As students progress through high school and the demographics of respect shift, so do the parking places. Each student serves their time parking on the street to ensure room for juniors and seniors in the lot, soon earning the same honored spots as they reach upperclassmen status. Many students agree that the system this year hasn’t been without its flaws. 

So why does this new system call for celebration? Let us not forget the battles of the 2025–26 school year.

The system was near doomed from the start. Despite there being only 395 spots in the parking lot, the school has given out 442 parking passes. Of these spots, data collected by The Pinnacle on a random Thursday in March showed that 239 spots were filled by students with passes, and 128 without. From these numbers alone, this means that around 203 students with passes were unable to park in the parking lot each day.

Many upperclassmen were quick to blame sophomores for this issue, but they often overlook the fact that all students — regardless of pass supremacy — have to get to class. With street parking filling up, and local businesses angry from unwanted guests in their lots, the sophomores were in a dilemma of their own.

However, for many upperclassmen, it was hard to give these newbies grace in such a frustrating situation. Up until now, students were regularly tardy or absent from class due to an inefficient system, even when leaving their homes 15 to 20 minutes earlier than normally necessary. From a survey answered by 100 Summit students, 61.6% of juniors and seniors felt “SO FRUSTRATED” about the current parking situation. Of these students who responded,  87.7% said this has made them late or tardy (73.7% of these happening routinely), 80% stated it had hurt their education in some form by missing learning time and 69.8% report this had affected their relationship with teachers. 

Yet arguably the most interesting statistic from the survey is that 74.7% of students were not feeling heard in voicing their concerns to staff at Summit. The parking issue had been so persistent this year, with students expressing frustration over repeated tardies, that it had become a comical interaction between staff and students.

Summit junior Lilly Young attempted to express her feelings to a Summit administrator after not being able to find a spot in the lot on her open period day, met with the advice of “early bird gets the worm.” If tardies and absences didn’t hold great power over both learning time and student’s reputations with teachers, this would honestly be a very funny joke. However, that is not the case. As a Summit junior struggling with finding parking, Young fought this not-so-funny battle alongside seniors.

With more open periods than other grades, seniors had been struggling the most to find parking. Kendall Dent, a senior taking four AP classes, explained her lengthy daily parking battle as she had to wait until a period ends for a student to leave, then take the spot and make her way to class.

“I don’t know who to talk to,” said Dent, reiterating the fact that students felt as though they hit a wall when trying to express their parking lot frustrations to administrators.

As the lack of parking had impacted both their education and relationship with teachers, seniors alike were frustrated with the disrespect from underclassmen not following the system as they did.

“I didn’t park in the lot when I was a sophomore,” stated senior Wyatt Ryan. 

“I didn’t think you’re supposed to,” continued senior August Betz.

With such a large sophomore class size, the system that once worked had begun to crumble.

“Everybody [parked in the parking lot] their sophomore year, and they only get mad about it when they are an upperclassmen, and I will probably get mad at the sophomores when I’m an upperclassmen,” explained sophomore Savannah Parker. 

The unsuccessful parking lot system had been so routine that it had changed the entire cycle of driving privileges in the Summit parking lot. Instead of the tried and true hierarchy, the traditional high school societal standards were being defied. The system which used to unite students through a certain level of respect had been shattered by entitlement and a lack of understanding from all grades towards the other.

First-year campus monitors JR Rombach and Mike Price were trying to keep the parking lot safe until larger changes could be made.

“We are not here to penalize you guys for being in school,” said JR, explaining how the different levels of the stickers and boots of the parking punishments were meant to contain the dangers of the lot while the root of the issue was being worked to solve.

Many upperclassmen had expressed anger with the fact that this system punished them for trying to find workarounds to a problem created by another group of students entirely. Their frustration stemmed from the fact that the punishment focused on illegal parking to keep the lot under control. The system did not target the root of the issue: the unwelcome underclassmen who go unpunished as the school does not have their license plate in the system — attached to a parking pass — in order to fine them for illegal parking.

As maddening as it was, and as silenced as students felt in expressing their opinions, the truth is that the miscommunication went and still goes both ways. There really are staff hoping to alleviate the parking predicament and these changes are the school’s way of helping these issues.

Students may feel as though their voices had not been heard by staff, but staff felt disrespected by students. 

“We’ve even gone as far as not booting people by leaving hand written notes [saying] ‘please come see us,’” Price said. “Later, we’ll go back out there to see the note all crumbled up.”

Our silly first-world-problem has finally been solved; the new system symbolizing voices recognized and a barrier of miscommunication at Summit overcome.

As we enter this new season of a new system, students and faculty alike must remember to practice communication skills to further improve aspects throughout the school.

“Communication is key, how can I help you if I don’t know,” said Price.

Now, it is students’ turn to listen. The staff at Summit are here to support students and the Storm community is strong as ever. All it takes is a hello, maybe even a thank you for such a parking system improvement.

“Mike’s a friendly guy, just come and talk to me,” Price emphasized.

That being said, some notes from our favorite campus monitors to remember:

• Juniors and seniors can still obtain free parking passes.
• If for some reason a student is without a pass for a day (loaner car, parent’s car, etc.), they can simply go talk to the campus monitors to work out a solution/fine avoidance.
• Students get one pass and one pass only, so keep that treasure safe!
• Keep voicing your opinions, students and staff!