Parking addressed at school board meeting
School officials say a solution to problem at BTHS is coming
BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

The meter is ticking for some Brick Township High School (BTHS) juniors, and it’s about to expire.

Hoping to find a speedy solution to the school’s parking woes before a new township ordinance takes effect, parents and students turned out en masse to the Board of Education meeting on Thursday night.

“If you want something done and it was dear to your heart, you’d find a way to do it in three days,” said Burlington Drive resident Maria Testa.

After residents complained about litter, students parking on lawns and other problems, the Township Council adopted an ordinance on Nov. 9 that banned parking between 10-11 a.m. on six streets around BTHS: Lakeland, Boxwood and Beachwood drives, as well as Alexander Avenue, Arthur Court and Jessica Lane.

The ordinance goes into effect on Dec. 2, which means that the juniors need to find another place to park or risk being ticketed. Using the parking lot at the Township Civic Center or parking on other streets near BTHS have been discussed among the students as alternatives.

Most of the students at the meeting said that they need to drive to school because they participate in athletics and there is no other way for them to get home after practice is over, usually between 4-5 p.m. Earlier this year, the district eliminated the late bus runs at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., citing lack of funds and the inefficiencies of the buses. A 3 p.m. bus was cut to three days a week to accommodate students who need to stay after school for academic purposes.

Although school officials said they didn’t have any answers for the parents and students, they said they would be looking into finding a solution, but probably not before the Dec. 2 deadline.

“Any solution is not going to happen overnight, in 30 days, in 60 days or 90 days,” said Business Administrator Nicholas Puleio.

According to school records, there are 588 total parking spaces on the BTHS property — 348 of those spots are used for faculty, staff and buses. The remaining 240 spots have been allocated for seniors. Of the 398 seniors, 287 have been issued parking permits this year, which means that the school has overextended the maximum number of parking spots by 47.

“There are many solutions to this problem,” said F Street resident Darlene Murano, whose son is a junior at BTHS.

Murano and Testa both made a number of suggestions to the board that they thought would free up parking on the school’s property, including: using the parking area near the football field; relocating the school buses and the bus drivers’ cars to the vacant Foodtown site on Route 70 to create spots for student parking; using the parking lots of the Brick Township Library, tennis courts and Forge Pond Golf Course for student parking; and moving some of the school buses to the parking lots of other schools in the district.

Puleio said that the parking area around the BTHS football field had been used in the past for parking, but a lot of fender benders occurred as a result and he didn’t think that was a viable solution.

Board member Dr. William P. Boyan said that the Foodtown lot is not fenced in and the buses would be subject to possible vandalism at the unsecured site. He added that because the bus parking lot on the BTHS property is located across the street from the police department, it receives additional security. Boyan said that he thought there might also be some environmental concerns if the school buses were parked at the Foodtown lot, which sits on the banks of Forge Pond.

“[The] Home Depot was defeated because of environmental concerns,” Boyan said. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to park diesel buses that might leak motor oil there.”

Boyan said the board is looking into the possibility of parking some of the buses at the township’s public works parking area on Sally Ike Road, but that solution would have to be studied.

Board member Frank Pannucci said that a task force would be formed to find a possible solution to the problem, but gave no timetable as to when that might occur. Pannucci said he thought the task force could include the board’s transportation committee, of which Pannucci, Sharon Kight and John Talty are members, and the police department, the Transport Workers Union, parents and students.

“This is a longtime headache 10 to 15 years in the making,” Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas L. Seidenberger said.

School officials have cited the increase in the student population and staff members needed at the school and the restrictions placed on new drivers as the main reasons for the parking problems at both of the township’s high schools.

According to state law, a 17-year-old driver may only drive with one other person in their car, in addition to a sibling, which cuts down on a student’s ability to carpool.

Earlier this year, residents in the Stone Mills Farms development near Brick Township Memorial High School (BMHS) complained about safety issues and quality-of-life issues caused by students parking on their streets.

To alleviate the problems at that school, the township allowed parking for juniors and seniors at the Newman Little League fields, a township-owned property located across the street from BMHS.

“It’s discriminatory against BTHS, when juniors and seniors at BMHS can drive and they can’t,” Murano said.

District officials suggested parents leave work early to pick up their children or organize carpools with other parents as a temporary solution.

“Our parents shouldn’t have to cut their working time to come pick us up,” said BTHS junior Ali Lewis.