School Parking Lot Fees Anger Escondido Students

For high school students in Escondido, the back-to-school blues have a new rub: Starting this year, they’ll have to pay to get to school if they take the bus or drive their own car.

Getting to high school will be free only for those students who walk or are dropped off at the curb.

The Escondido Union High School District has not only joined a growing roster of districts in San Diego County who charge students to ride the bus to school--$1 a day--but it also now requires driving students to pay $30 a semester to use the campus parking lots.

The only other district to charge parking fees is San Marcos, which charges a token $5 a year to park on campus, money that goes to the student body treasury.

In Escondido, the money will be used to increase security at the parking lots of the district’s three schools, which officials say have been plagued with vandalism in recent years.

Last year, about 1,200 students drove to school. If that many pay the fee this year, the district will generate about $72,000 in new revenue--the lion’s share of a $122,000 district plan to hire security guards to protect the parking lots and to surround them with fencing.

“I’m really distressed by it, and everyone I know is really angry,” said Jenny Hibbs, a 17-year-old senior at San Pasqual High in Escondido. “That’s 30 bucks I don’t have.”

Some students say they’ll now park off campus and walk to school--a prospect that concerns school officials, who fear the move will anger nearby residents.

“I’ll just park at Kit Carson Park (across the street from San Pasqual High) and walk over to class and save the money,” said Deri Bash, another senior who attends San Pasqual in the morning and takes an afternoon class at Palomar Community College in San Marcos. “I’m only paying $18 a semester to park at Palomar,” he said.

Kristin Spann, who just turned 16 and got her driver’s license the other day, said she and her friends at Orange Glen High “are really grumbling over this. This isn’t fair at all. A lot of people are talking about just parking on the neighborhood streets and walking the rest of the way.”

The fee was instituted by the school board over the summer--but news of it didn’t hit home for most students until they received back-to-school letters from their principals last week.

“We were getting complaints by students that security was lax in their parking lots, that windows were being broken and stereos stolen,” said school board President John Damelio.

But the financially strapped district--already dipping deep into its reserves to get through the new school year--lacked the money to hire new guards and install fencing without financial help from the students who stood to benefit by the added security, Damelio said.

“If they want the security--the added security guards and the fences--then we had to institute a fee for parking. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Responded student Spann: “I thought the cars were safe enough before.”

Not so, administrators say.

Vandalism has been a growing problem at each of the three campuses in recent years, said David Jenkins, the school district’s business manager.

“The nature of our community has changed. We’re seeing a greater incidence of non-students coming on campus, and even some (criminal) activity by our own students, of breaking into automobiles, or vandalism.”

Hardest hit of the three schools, he said, has been San Pasqual High, probably because its parking lot is on a corner of the sprawling campus--away from mainstream foot traffic once the school day begins--and alongside busy Bear Valley Parkway near the North County Fair shopping mall.

Orange Glen High is in a relatively quiet residential neighborhood on the east side of Escondido, and in the north part of town, Escondido High’s student parking lot is situated between classrooms and the athletic field, so regular foot traffic by students is a deterrent to vandalism, Jenkins said.

San Pasqual Principal Jayme Arner said her campus parking lot had such a level of vandalism two years ago that last year student volunteers began monitoring the lot.

Half a dozen students who were normally assigned office duties were given walkie-talkies and dispatched to a safe post on campus where they could spot people in the parking lot from a distance and notify the full-time campus security guard.

The problems ranged from outsiders, including gang members, coming onto the parking lot, either to vandalize or meet student gang members, to students who were themselves vandals, to “something as simple as Jimmy forgetting his math book, going back out to the parking lot and setting off car alarms on the way,” Arner said.

Within weeks, she said, a fence will be installed around the parking lot and a new security guard will be hired with the prime responsibility of watching over the lot. Already, the parking lot gate is closed during the school day, but the new improvements will restrict people even from walking into the parking during the school day, she said.

Students have been told to buy their parking stickers by Sept. 16 or risk having their cars towed.

Arner said there has been some grumbling from both parents and students, and she has heard talk that students will park across the street at the city’s regional park.

“I hope they don’t do that,” she said. “Maybe it’s the mother coming out in me, but I don’t want my kids crossing Bear Valley. And their cars will be even less supervised over there.”

“It’ll really be interesting to see the fallout on this,” Arner said. “I won’t be surprised to see some articles on this when the first (student) paper comes out.”

Diane Mackerley, president of the San Pasqual Parents Club, said she has received “quite a number of calls, but I wouldn’t say everybody is up in arms, because people know we need security.” She said the parent group hasn’t yet met this year to discuss the issue, “but when we have our first meeting, I expect the issue will be raised.”

One parent, Ron Renckly, said he was “upset and concerned” about the fee “because it begs the question, where does this (paying of fees) stop? We’re already paying for the majority of school supplies, and now the parking. Are we going to have to pay the teachers directly to teach our children next, to supplement their salaries? Are we going to have to pay the school for them to turn on air conditioners? I suppose they might think pay-toilets might be a good idea, too.”

He complained that even if the $30 fee is paid, “there’s still no guarantee that the cars will be safe. It’ll be no different than parking your car at the airport. There’s still the waiver, and you still take a risk.”

Patricia Spann, president of the Orange Glen High School Parent Teacher Student Assn., said her first reaction to the new fee was “No way!”

“But when you find out what the money’s for, you understand. And there’s the feeling that if you can afford a car, you can afford the $30 to park.”

In addition to the parking fees, the Escondido High School District has joined a number of others in the county--including in Poway, Solana Beach, Encinitas, San Marcos, El Cajon, Spring Valley and Ramona--to institute fees of up to $1 a day for school bus transportation. The Ramona district is reconsidering that decision when it meets today.

The San Diego Unified School District does not charge for student busing or for students to park on its high school campuses.

Jenkins, Escondido’s business manager, said it costs about $700,000 a year to operate buses, which take about 550 students to school daily. About $150,000 of that is reimbursed by the state, and the new daily rider fees are expected to generate about $55,000 a year--which reflects, he said, a 25% drop in ridership once the fees are instituted.

At least high school students have access to school buses, if they live 3 miles or farther from campus. The Escondido Union (elementary) School District does not provide bus service except for handicapped students.