Students protest hike in school parking fees

Two dozen teenagers urged the Wake County school board today to drop a $50 increase in student parking fees.

The school board had voted earlier this year to raise the annual student parking fee to $170, up from $120, to help offset a budget shortfall. But teens at today's board meeting said school leaders shouldn't balance the budget on their backs.

"The monetary gain from this increase doesn't seem to be worth the resistance that it's gaining from students," said Ashley Farwell, who said she was speaking for Wake's high school student body presidents.

School board members gave no indication that they were willing to relent as they did in 2005. That year, the board doubled the parking fee to $240 a year, before rescinding the increase after students complained.

This is the first increase in Wake's parking fee since 2000.

At many high schools, there aren't enough parking spaces for all the students who want them. But students warned that the increase was so great that many teens would choose to ride the bus instead, increasing Wake's transportation costs.

Farwell pointed out that other school districts don't charge as much money for parking fees. For instance, the fee is $25 in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, $75 in Durham and $100 in Chapel Hill-Carrboro.

Initially, the school board decided to raise the parking fee by $25 to $145 a year. But the board decided to go with a $50 increase after county commissioners provided the school board with $36.2 million less than what had been requested.

Revenues from parking fees were originally collected to pay for the cost of private security officers to patrol the high schools. But now the money is put into the district's general budget.

If the fee increase stands, Farwell said it should be used for something that's tangible for students.