Recently, the administration at New Fairfield High School announced that there will be very limited parking availability on the school campus due to the upcoming new building construction. As described in the email sent out to students and parents, this means only a small number of raffled seniors will be available to receive a parking space. Many seniors, all juniors, and possibly even a few eligible sophomores will not have the ability to drive themselves to and from school. 

Think about all the opportunities this will cause you to miss, and the new inconveniences as well... (ex. Arriving late after the first-period study, leaving early before last period study, more flexible schedules in the morning, possibly being late to a job and/or commitment due to extended transportation times.)

Keep in mind according to the state, students are at high risk for COVID-19 and will be forced to wear a face mask regardless of vaccinated status. However, this predicament will cause the vast majority of students to take other forms of transportation to school such as high volume carpooling and district bus transportation. This completely undermines the expectation by the state and school district to keep COVID-19 precautions in place. One must ask why our district decided to take actions that will result in children (grades K-12) being placed in more vulnerable positions against COVID-19. 

On top of the regular taxes that our parents must pay to the town/school (which fund these very parking lots), they are now required to pay even more in local taxes to fund these expensive building projects. Yet, almost the entirety of eligible drivers cannot park on these several lots of public property! This is absurd and pathetic.

 This is going to be our third school year derailed and negatively affected by the pandemic. You would think and hope the school administration would do everything they could to let us go back to normalcy. Yet, they once again threw another major change and inconvenience in our way. They have already taken so much away from us. We want what we deserve! We want things to go back to normal!

Therefore, we ask all NFHS students who believe that the school should look into alternative parking options or keep these lots available to sign this petition. Support from any other individuals such as parents or teachers is greatly appreciated too.

*Please keep an eye out for any possible peaceful protest and rally events in the coming weeks that may be held on the school campus to make the school more aware of our efforts.*

Thank you all.