South High has recently redone their parking lot adding extra spaces to park, slanted parking, and switching from asphalt to concrete. The construction cost a rough amount of $1,600,000+ and took the entire summer to complete.
Many staff and students complained that construction had not been completed in time for school, although the parking lot has had many delays due to sports, weather and other.
“We were gonna close it the last day of school, but it was decided because of the 4a state tournament we held off construction for a week, so… and then we still had projected if weather was great we would be ready by time school started. But it average rained on a weekly basis throughout the whole summer,” Head of Maintenance, Darcy Brown said.
Getting out of the parking lot at South High has always been a challenge for students. It could take up to 16 minutes to get out of the lot. For the last few years students have been complaining about the size and the system of the parking lot. Though the lot in the past had arrows it was difficult to get students to follow them to the correct exits, the slanted parking forced drivers to the correct direction. There are also new rules when drivers get to the exit of the lot. Now when exiting the softball field lot drivers must turn left onto Edward Street, and the football lot must turn right onto Edward unless exiting onto Magnolia. This new system makes it both fast and safe for students leaving school. The new slanted parking spaces have also made it easier to park and to back out, especially for those with bigger vehicles.
“I’d say it has improved. Everyone seems to know already what they do and it seems it’d be a lot easier to back out and go into parking spaces now,” Xavyer Nouanlasy (’24) said.

