The upcoming Highland rebuild has been talked about both excitedly and cautiously by students and staff alike. The construction will begin with the east and north parking lots being shut down in March.
By 2031, Highland and West can expect new schools. Salt Lake City School District wants to bring Highland “safety, structural strength, and high-quality education.”
But over the next five years, there are bound to be growing pains. And it begins with the parking situation.
An annoying challenge, according to Highland principal Jeremy Chatterton is that only 20 parking spots will be lost when March comes around, but the spots will have to be tighter, a struggle for drivers with wider cars.
Junior Hazel Thiese has her own car and drives to school. She is worried that other drivers will experience damage to their cars.
“I’ve had problems with my car being dinged in the past,” Thiese said. “So, I think narrower spots might be an issue.”
With the issue of overcrowding, the administration discussed limiting parking passes to upperclassmen only, but ultimately decided against this plan. Chatterton’s reasoning for not just reserving parking for the senior class is because they tend to take fewer classes, which would lead to Highland having empty parking spots during much of the day.
The new parking situation could lead to students parking up the street in an attempt to avoid the chaos. Kylee Peterson, who lives across the street from Highland, said that parking on her street usually doesn’t bother her, but there have been times when it’s been an issue.
“We’ve had some issues in the past with people parking on the street,” Peterson said. “[Their cars] ended up blocking our driveway.”
Congestion when leaving the parking lot is one of the biggest concerns. With only two exits, one of which is designated for buses, getting out of the parking lot after school has become an exercise in patience.
“[When I’m leaving school], people are honking at each other, getting out of their cars and screaming at each other,” Thiese said. “It’s just a mess.”
Leaving school at 3:15 right now is more than just an inconvenience. It’s difficult for students with afterschool club sports practices, work shifts, or appointments, to make their commitments on time.
“I think the longest it took me was half an hour to get out of the parking lot,” Thiese said.
One Highland teacher believes a solution could be the use of staggered release times for students. Under this idea, each floor would get out five minutes apart, and the excusal time would rotate. This would hopefully help with some of the anticipated gridlocks after school.
Another idea is to have priority spots close to the school if people carpool with more students, leading to fewer vehicles overall.
One thing that won’t happen is a reduction in the number of students. Some students heard rumors that they may have to relocate to another school in the district, such as East High, if construction ever became unfit for learning conditions. Chatterton said that these rumors are “completely false.”
One other issue students will face is navigating an active construction site at school.
“[Students] have to walk on the sidewalk along 1700 East, past the full construction site, to reach the building,” Chatterton said.
But there will be sidewalk access into the building, Chatterton said.
Students will have to endure challenges in the upcoming years. But Thiese believes it’s worth it to see Highland transformed into a new space focused on learning, athletics, and school spirit.
“I don’t want my younger siblings to go in the gym, and a rat runs through it. True story,” Thiese said. “I think it will be a pretty building. I’m excited to drive past it.”
But for now, Thiese is more worried about getting out of the parking lot.
