Due to the school’s construction, the administration has decided to move junior parking to Dadeland Mall while the seniors remain parked at the Upper School. This change has impacted my student life— and that of many others— negatively for numerous reasons.

My daily schedule before the parking changes was already tough since I live in Key Biscayne and have to do early bird and after school sports. I used to wake up a bit before 6:00 a.m. to arrive at school at 7:00 a.m. and immediately go to class but now I have to wake up even earlier so that I can arrive at Dadeland and take the shuttle to school. Even though the shuttles have been efficient in taking students from one place to another, it is still somewhat annoying to have to go through all of this knowing that nothing is benefiting you or your schedule.

Despite the early time I have to wake up, I also depend on my car to get back home after my sport ends which is usually later at night when there are no shuttles back to Dadeland. As a result, right after school I have to get in the Dadeland shuttle to get my car and then come back to the Upper School. This causes a delay because most of the time when I do this I usually end up late to practice. On Wednesdays when we have a later dismissal, I have to leave early from practice to go on the shuttle to get my car and go home, causing further complications to my schedules.

I believe that there could’ve been some alternatives to this issue. One of those having been the earlier construction and prioritizing of the new parking garage over the field. If they started the parking lot construction at the end of last year’s school year and throughout summer, I believe they could have made enough progress to be practically finished. Even if they aren’t done they could at least open a section of the finished parking lot for us to park. Another solution could be alternating the weeks that seniors and juniors park on campus. One week the seniors could park at Dadeland while we park at school and continuously switch back and forth.