On Friday, September 13th, a tow truck arrived on campus to take away students’ cars parked on the lot behind the ice rink. The truck, called by a Wissahickon Ice Rink employee, arrived in the middle of a class period leaving the majority of students unaware. Although there is no record of any cars being towed that day, as of the first week of October, four SCH senior’s cars have, in fact, been towed away.The towing incident brings up a wider issue for students attending Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. For years, some SCH students have experienced tardiness due to lack of parking. With only two parking lots and limited curbside parking, students have been struggling to find available spots, especially with the number of drivers only increasing throughout the year. The classes of ‘26 and ‘27 have class sizes of 133 and 127 respectively, both of which are greater than the ‘25 class. This issue will only grow into an even bigger problem.
Upper School Administrative Assistant Stephanie Schade weighed in on the issue stating, “We all know that parking is at a premium here. Yeah, it’s very hard to find parking, and it gets worse and worse as the school year goes on and more and more kids start getting their licenses, but it’s just a matter of you got to get there earlier, park where you need to be, and give yourself enough time to walk wherever you need to go because we’ve all had to park far away. Yeah, and you just have to deal with it, but you got to park legally.”
Senior Andrew Blum’s car was parked in a coned off pile of gravel beside the filled parking lot the morning of Thursday the 19th.
Some students, however, think the problem is simply too difficult to resolve. When asked if he thinks anything could be done to improve parking conditions, senior Andrew Blum said, “Honestly, I don’t think there is anything you can do.” He said this the morning after he was forced to park in a coned off pile of gravel due to lack of parking availability. Fellow senior Ethan Eckert questioned, “I don’t know if you can use it but I was told even as a member of Wissahickon skating club I couldn’t park in the bottom lot section facing the rink by the guy that works down there.”
However, Ms. Schade had a more optimistic mindset than some of the students: “You need to come up with a plan and present it to either Mr. Norcini or Dr. Dinkins, and have them then get in touch with the Wissahickon, whoever’s in charge over there, and come up with an agreement as to what could be used as spots if they will allow that.”
It seems that the parking issue at SCH will continue until a well thought out, collaborative plan is developed and presented to both the school and skating club. Until then, students of SCH will have to adjust to the limited availability of legal parking spaces on campus.
