Parking Around Schools Is Lesson in Frustration for Teachers

At a handful of older Santa Ana schools, the first big challenge facing teachers every morning isn’t preparing lesson plans or grading homework.

It’s finding a parking space.

At several elementary and intermediate schools built decades ago, parking lots either don’t exist or are far too small to fit all the cars of growing teaching staffs.

Finding parking on streets close to the schools in residential neighborhoods can be difficult, if not impossible, teachers say.

Cars parked blocks away from school have been burglarized, vandalized or even stolen, school officials said.

At many schools without lots, teachers are sometimes forced to park in street-sweeping zones and accept expensive tickets just to make it to class on time.

“It’s just one inconvenience that takes away from teaching and meeting the needs of the kids, and that’s what we’re here for,” Wilson Elementary School Principal DeVera Heard said.

When streets around Wilson Elementary are limited to parking on one side of the street for sweeping, teachers cram their cars on the kindergarten playground. Uniformed students on swings push off the cars backed up against swing sets, Heard said.

While children don’t seem to mind the playground obstacles, teachers sometimes have to be pulled out of class to move cars that block others from leaving.

The parking crisis can take a toll on a teacher’s state of mind, Heard said.

“They have to drive around three times to find a parking space, and by the time they resolve this problem, they’re getting in five minutes before the kids,” she said. “You need to be up and ready to start teaching. Instead you’re getting over the agony of finding a parking space.”

Gayle McLean, Wilson Elementary’s school nurse, said the problem for her is more than inconvenient.

When McLean is called to other schools for minor emergencies, she often can’t find parking anywhere near campus.

McLean said she has had to hurry on foot from parking spaces several blocks away to treat children with broken arms or unexplained rashes.

Rowena Tovar, who works in the office at Wilson Elementary, said she got a $41 ticket Tuesday when she unknowingly parked in a street-sweeping zone.

“I was so angry,” she said. “What do they expect, that all the employees should leave [during street sweeping] and then come back?”

At Edison Elementary School, more teachers have been ticketed this year because the school’s staff has grown, making parking more scarce, Principal Mary Marguez said.

Edison was built in 1937 and was meant to hold less than half the students it now accommodates. The school has a small space between classrooms that can fit a few cars, Marguez said. But there are about 60 staff members at any one time.

“The last ones who get here can’t find a parking space, so they park where they know they’re going to get a ticket,” Marguez said. “They have kids waiting.”

Some schools have learned to work around the problem, officials said.

At Fremont Elementary School, the city allows teachers to find spaces at a nearby public park, and a supermarket near Franklin Elementary lets teachers use its lot. Neither school has its own parking lot.

The Santa Ana Unified School District has agreed to take over street-sweeping around Wilson Elementary before school Tuesday mornings, Heard said.

Residents might have to wake up early to move their cars, but at least the kindergartners will have their playground back, she said.

Alex Katz can be reached at (714) 966-5977.