Last year, construction finished on West Po’s faculty parking lot. This new parking lot, located behind the Gunston building, was designed for teachers and academy students to have a place to park and hopefully free up some parking space in the other lots.

However, since it opened many spaces in the faculty parking lot have been filled by students.

On a recent day, the parking lot had 150 cars in it 88 of which had either a faculty pass or an academy pass (59%) while 62 had no pass at all (41%). Though many parking spaces are empty in the faculty parking lot, students still risk being given a $40 dollar ticket by the West Po security team. Around two to five tickets are handed out every day and students have about three days to repay them though some flexibility may be given on a case-by-case basis. 

West Po has recently added new labeling on the parking spaces as either “staff” or “academy” parking spots. According to student activities director Mr. Macdonald, this new addition has helped lower the amount of pass-less cars in the faculty parking lot and the situation overall has improved since last year.

West Potomac has also increased the amount of Academy parking spots to accommodate students arriving from other schools. “It’s been very helpful to have these new designated spots.” Said an administrative assistant at the Academy, “In the past we’ve had limited spots for academy students, but now we have about 25 which has allowed us to give out more passes and accommodate more students”.