475 passes.
1,285 juniors and seniors.
One moment that determines whether or not students can park at school.
On June 17, a high-stakes game will commence across Oviedo, for students desperate to secure a spot on campus for their cars in the upcoming school year. This is the parking pass sale, with the senior passes selling out almost instantly and junior passes vanishing in under five minutes.
To even have the opportunity to get a pass, there are a few requirements. Students must first clear a series of administrative hurdles—the most critical being that they do not have any obligations
“We make sure that we’ve got an up-to-date list of student debts,” bookkeeper Melissa Clarke said. “If you haven’t turned in your textbooks, we’re going to send an invoice… any debt is going to go live.”
The campus has roughly 500 parking spaces available, but the amount hat are open to park in can fluctuate. Because of dual enrollment, online classes and increased flexibility, administration strategically oversells the lot. This way, they can increase accessibility to students who may be on campus for part of the day.
“We’ve been very open with the fact that we will sell more passes than there are spots,” School Administration Manager Jason Maitland. “However, it works out because some of our students are only on campus for one or two classes when those other students aren’t on campus yet, so by the time they’ve left, the other students have come, and it kind of works out.”
This overlap allows the school to maximize accessibility for students navigating dual enrollment and virtual classes.
However, when it comes to the $80 price tag set by the county, the school actually retains little. The majority of the fee, $70, goes to the district to pay for School Resource Officers, $3 is the MySchoolBucks fee, and the final $7 is used to cover parking tags and maintenance of the lot.
The window opens and closes within five minutes and the biggest threat to potential passholders is aimlessly searching the school store. This is a big misconception, as the pass does not show up in the school store, but in respective junior and senior ecampus class pages, with a specific, direct link.
“A lot of people will ask me, ‘I cannot find [where] to buy a parking pass in the store’.” Clarke said. “That’s not how it works. It’s advertised heavily that we send out a very specific direct link to buy the pass.”
For those who miss it, there will be one final round of 100 last-minute spots dropping later in the summer.
