Written By: Izzy Bernie

At Rye Country Day School, avoiding traffic in the morning does not stop on Grandview Avenue. By 8:20 am, the RCDS parking lots and drop-off circles have turned into a miniature traffic jam. With juniors hoping to park in the senior lot and the endless line of cars, finding a space and making it to House on time can feel like a competition. 

According to Dean of Students Mr. Kyle, the parking situation is easiest at the beginning of the year. However, he acknowledges that “from day one, virtually every spot on campus is likely to be filled.” What’s more, the number of available spaces will only continue to decrease as the school year continues, as more students will earn their licenses and begin driving to school. 

Parking enforcement has become a larger challenge as the student body has grown. “As enrollment has increased, the number of drivers coming to campus has increased. And yet the number of available parking spaces has not increased at the same rate,” says Mr. Kyle. Instead of jumping to the harshest of punishments, the school is relying on what he described as “more frequent and enthusiastic messaging” to remind students where they can and cannot park. Still, he noted that repeated violations of the rules can lead to a student losing their on-campus parking privileges.

Adding to the complexity of on-campus parking, students have begun to park on nearby residential streets, something that RCDS highly discourages students from doing. “We try to be a good neighbor,” Mr. Kyle says, continuing on to explain that the Rye Country Day faculty hopes to avoid complaints from residents about students’ cars blocking driveways or lining the narrower streets. 

When asked why licensed sophomores are not allowed to park on campus, Mr. Kyle’s answer was simple: “There just aren’t enough spaces.” Because of an age-based hierarchy, seniors get priority, followed by juniors, and allowing sophomores to park is “just unrealistic at this point.” 

There may be relief on the horizon to this parking problem, though certainly not immediately. With the building of East Campus, Mr. Kyle confirmed that there will be additional parking included in the project development plan: “While the school will benefit from extraordinary new facilities, we’ll also benefit from the less glamorous, but essential addition of some parking.” Unfortunately for current Upper School students of all grades, East Campus parking will most likely be unavailable until after graduation. 

For many seniors, the parking frustrations come down to fairness. One senior explained, “I’ll arrive at 8:20, and there’s juniors cutting me off and going into the senior lot or the dirt lot. If the junior lot is open and you’re on time before 8:30, park there. It’s just the principle of it.” Both Mr. Kyle and the students have noticed this trend. He remarked, “Some juniors say, ‘I’m not going to use the junior lot because it’s too far to walk.’ But when the junior lot is half full and people still park in the senior or construction lots, that’s not okay. It’s really a community problem that requires everyone to use their resources wisely.”

Across the community, it is agreed that parking is an issue at Rye Country Day. What are the short-term solutions while waiting for East Campus spaces? Mr Kyle proposes one: “The simplest answer, which, to be fair and respectful, does come at a cost for teenagers, is get up a little earlier, get here a little earlier, and you won’t find yourself fighting the line or the scramble to find a parking space. Simply put, I am not a morning person, but I get here at 7:30 largely because I know that I’m going to be able to park in the same spot every day and not have to wait behind a line of cars and buses. And to me, the tradeoff is worth it.”

Mr. Kyle’s final advice to students is to recognize that individuals need to follow the rules for the designated lots. Parking is a community-wide problem that has some solutions, and students need to respect it and work together until East Campus parking becomes a reality.