PARKING FEES* Brainerd High: $25* Howard High: $25* Lookout Valley Middle-High: $30* Sequoyah High: $30* Center for Creative Arts: $35* Hamilton County High: $40* Red Bank High: $50* Tyner Academy: $50* Central High: $60* Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences: $60* East Ridge High: $60* Ooltewah High: $60* Soddy-Daisy High: $70* Hixson High: $75* Sale Creek High: $75* Signal Mountain Middle-High: $75* East Hamilton School: $80Source: Hamilton County Schools
Parking fees for Hamilton County’s high school students are unfair, inequitable and seem to be getting higher, students and at least one school board member say.
The fee for students to park cars on campus varies widely — from $25 a year at Brainerd and Howard high schools to $80 at the year-old East Hamilton School.
After reluctantly voting at the June board meeting to approve student fees for next year, Hamilton County Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman charged school officials with studying the fees — which schools must use to pay for their own parking lot maintenance and painting — to try to make them more equitable.
“I can’t see why it costs any more to pave the parking lot at Soddy-Daisy than it does at Howard,” she said. “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason.”
Christie Jordan, the school system’s director of accounting and budgeting, said the different fees reflect the individual needs of each school and each community.
Grace Shaw, a rising senior at Ooltewah High School, said she almost understood the school’s $55 parking fee when the school was overcrowded and parking was at a premium. But last year, after East Hamilton opened and relieved Ooltewah of its overflowing student body, the cost actually went up to $60.
“We pay $5 more than before the school split, when we have plenty of parking spaces for everyone to have first-come first-serve,” she said.
Before Ooltewah students can pay $60 to choose their parking spot, they must first have a 3.5 grade-point average and have paid a totally separate $60 school fee.
“You have to pay $120 for your parking, which is quite ridiculous for one year,” said Miss Shaw, who paid her own parking fee this year.
Red Bank High School principal Gail Chuy said after the fees have covered the costs of parking lot upkeep, the money goes into general education funds at the school. Teachers do not have to pay the parking fees, she said.
“Quite frankly, we don’t get enough money to run our schools from the state and local taxes. It’s just not enough,” she said.
Ms. Thurman also suggested that, unless staff members in the school system’s central office begin paying for their parking spaces, students shouldn’t have to, either.
School board attorney Scott Bennett said schools can require payment from students to park their cars on campus. A parking space is a privilege and not a right, so the school system legally can charge for it.
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