BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer
An overabundance of parked cars on streets near Brick Township High School has prompted the Township Council to consider a “no parking” ordinance for six streets.
The council was expected to have a first reading of the ordinance at its meeting Tuesday. The ordinance restricts parking on Lakeland, Boxwood and Beachwood drives, as well as Alexander Avenue, Arthur Court and Jessica Lane, from 10-11 a.m.
According to BTHS Principal Dennis Filippone, there is a finite number of parking spaces on school grounds, and because of an increase in enrollment, the district has had to restrict student parking to seniors only this year.
“We used to have enough for everyone who could drive,” Filippone said.
Last year, when the senior-only parking rules were enacted, juniors began parking on streets near the school. Since then, the school has received complaints from residents on those streets.
“It becomes a hassle for the residents, because who wants to have 50 cars parked on their street,” Filippone said.
There are 575 parking spots at the high school, and all of them have been assigned to students, staff members and bus drivers. Some of the spots may be empty from time to time, but Filippone said that is because some students have an early-out option for the work program or to take classes at Ocean County College.
“We are 100 percent allotted at this particular time,” he said.
In fact, Filippone said, there are still 40 senior students who have yet to get their driver’s license. Those students are entitled to a permitted parking spot on school grounds, and the school isn’t quite sure yet where they will tell them to park. One possibility is an access road that leads to the football field, but Filippone said “it’s not an optimum place to put kids.”
Last year, the Board of Education enacted a random-drug-testing policy for students who get parking permits from the high schools. Councilman Michael Thulen said at the Township Council’s Oct. 19 meeting that because some students, who are 18 years of age, opted not to sign the drug-testing consent form in order to get a parking permit, they have to park near the school instead.
He said it is because of the parking rules implemented by the school board that the district is having parking problems.
“I think the school board is making us take care of their problems again,” Thulen said. He referred to an ordinance the Township Council passed a few years ago allowing the township police department to enforce parking permits and other driving rules on school grounds by ticketing offenders.
“The residents of that area came to the town as a last resort,” council President Stephen Acropolis said. “So we’ve got to do something about it.”
“It’s not fair to the people that live in that area,” he added. “We’re not trying to fix the school policy.”
Councilwoman Ruthanne Scaturro said the council members should look at the situation as helping out the residents who live near the school.
At the Oct. 19 meeting, Councilwoman Kathy Russell said she was afraid the ordinance would lead students to park on streets even farther away from the school. When council members said they didn’t feel students would want to walk that far to the school, Russell said, “I think we’re underestimating the youth here.”
Thulen said he felt students would find other places to park.
“In six months you’ll be writing another ordinance for the parking lot at the civic center,” he said.
According to Filippone, he only knows of six students who turned in their permits last year as a result of the new drug-testing rule. He said no one turned in a permit this year; however, he has no way of measuring how many students simply didn’t apply for a parking permit because of the rule.
Thulen has brought up the drug-testing consent form for a parking permit issue at several council meetings, saying he doesn’t think “it’s fair to expect people to sign their rights away.”
He said that while the drug testing is supposed to be random, “randomly, they happen to be the same students over and over again [who are picked for testing.]”
Filippone explained during a phone interview Friday that each student is given a number and a computer program picks a percentage of random numbers to be tested each week. At each high school, approximately 19 students are tested each week.
“There’s no instance where we say, ‘We want this child tested,’ ” Filippone said.
Filippone said he feels the majority of people parking on the streets near the school’s property are juniors, not students who didn’t want to sign the consent form.
While there has been some complaints from residents, which Filippone said were brought to the attention of the township police department, he said for the most part students parking near the school have behaved themselves.
“I’m not proud that people out there aren’t happy with us because of the parking,” Filippone said.
He said that as the school’s student population has grown, the number of staff members and bus drivers has grown as well. Another issue that impacts the school’s parking problem is a rule recently imposed by the state for new drivers. Filippone said that because new drivers can only have one sibling and one non-related person in their car for their first year of driving, more students are driving rather than car-pooling.
Approximately 25-30 percent of senior students leave very day for the work program or to take classes at the community college. But the district does not have open campuses — students cannot leave during lunch periods partly because “we’re in a busy section of town,” Filippone said.
“We’re in a tough spot for parking,” he added.
The closed-campus rule exists at Brick Memorial High School as well. While the seniors-only parking rule exists district-wide, District Business Administrator Walter Hrcenko said there is extra parking available across the street at Brick Memorial, so the parking shortage isn’t really a problem there.
Now that the council is expected to adopt the “no parking” ordinance on the six aforementioned streets, Filippone said he hopes juniors who don’t have parking privileges yet will take advantage of school transportation. He said, if they don’t, the reality is the students may find another place to park.
“There’s a parental component that’s important, too,” Filippone said. “There’s a responsibility from those children or those parents to do what’s right.”
The second reading on the ordinance is scheduled for the Township Council’s Nov. 9 public meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the municipal building. Public input on the ordinance will be allowed at this time.