If you are a student driver, you may have noticed a big change in your daily step count due to revised parking assignments for non-seniors.

Seniors now enjoy exclusive access to the former upper school student parking lot as other drivers are moved to the lot adjacent to Agape Chapel.

The parking lot adjustment was announced at the Back to School Night on Monday, Aug. 11, but some students didn’t learn of it until the first day of school.

“I got a text from my friend who heard it from a teacher first, and I was like, there’s no way they would do that,” junior Sierra Koontz said.

In previous years, the parking lot by the upper school wing of the Collierville campus was used by all upperclassmen, but seniors got first pick by reserving and painting their parking spots in front of where others often parked.

This year, seniors are the only class with access to the parking lot, with certain sections reserved for faculty.

Dean of Students Dr. Helene Keenan was one of the faculty members involved in making the decision to move students to their new parking lot.

“First off, the senior class is very, very large, so there needs to be a lot more available spaces with … more students parking over there,” Dr. Keenan said.

With 92 students currently enrolled, the class of 2026 is one of the largest in recent memory, taking up a significantly larger portion of the parking space than in previous years.

The new plan also reshaped traffic flow during morning and afternoon carpool, as non-seniors now park along the route where other students were previously dropped off and picked up.
The assignment of ensuring traffic flow runs smoothly falls under the umbrella of Chief Operations Officer Rodney Bright.

“Starting off, it was pretty clunky, but then we made some adjustments about how the queuing line in the afternoon lines up,” Mr. Bright said. “So we’re really back to moving carpool through the campus in about 12 to 15 minutes, like last year.”

One common complaint among juniors is the extended walk every morning to the front door, especially with the adjusted start time at 8:15 instead of 8:30.

“It has been kind of a major inconvenience. I mean, especially in the morning or in the afternoon. […] In the morning, let’s say I forgot something in the car, I have to walk all the way back and so that’s just annoying,” junior Shattuck Adams said.

However, Dr. Keenan views the inconvenience to be controllable with forward planning.

“It’s just time management, arriving so you have enough time to get through the door on time in the morning,” Dr. Keenan said.