Over the years, with the increase in students and staff driving to school, the current parking lot has become overcrowded, and not everyone has been able to take advantage of it. To address the issue of parking, the school board recently approved a plan to construct a new parking lot nearby with 50 new spots, bringing the total to around 871 spaces.
The decision to add additional spots didn’t come out of thin air. In previous years, too many students and staff members have decided to get to State High by driving themselves, and the current lot simply cannot hold everyone who wants to do that.
Raya Wolyniec, a senior and Student Government Vice President, shared the importance of getting this project approved.
“I know a ton of students who either didn’t get a spot or didn’t have a car in the beginning of the year and were unable to get a parking spot later in the year. I personally go off campus for a class at Penn State, and not having a parking spot at the high school is extremely limiting to other students who would like to take those classes as well,” Wolyniec said.
After complaints from many students and running numbers of just how many students were affected, the student government became involved in advocating for the expansion. Soon after, the SCASD Board of Directors approved the expansion, where the school’s leadership council and student government created a plan and presented it to the borough as well as other teachers and staff supporting goals of equity, accessibility, and safety for all students.
Student government secretary Nubah was the spokesperson for this draft and shared more details on the expansion.
“Making vans that do transits from Penn State and back or bus loops and things like that, so we are coming up with different solutions to combat this problem instead of just expanding our parking lot, and the [State College] Borough was very understanding and open to hear from all the students,” Nubah said.
Expanding the parking lot has been an issue on students’ minds for a while now. New spaces have already been talked about previously, but were omitted due to budget constraints of the past. Still, the student body felt that the issue needed to be taken more seriously and pushed for it to get passed, considering it could be taken as an equity issue. Not only have seniors been waiting all of high school to get a spot and not been granted one, but the lack of spots was also not allowing students to do certain activities, such as clinical ops and nurse ai,d as well as internships at Penn State. The student government used these students as a voice.
This project should be going into effect soon and benefit the SCASD 2025-2026 school year.
“As far as I know, the 50 spots have been approved and should start construction in the next year from what I’ve heard. Further expansion has been discussed for the future, but there hasn’t been a solid plan made yet for that,” Wolyniec said.
The new lot will be located at the eastern end of the school near the north side of the campus, and it will benefit the school greatly in the upcoming years, providing new opportunities, student well-being, and inclusivity.
