Trespassers spark Elgin High School parking ban idea

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Students who park their cars along Maroon Drive outside of Elgin High School may have to look for other spaces. The city of Elgin may make the street a no-parking zone during school hours.| Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: November 22, 2011 8:09AM

ELGIN — Alex Rodriguez parked his car just after 7 a.m. last Friday on Maroon Drive, across the street from Elgin High School.

It was the first time the 18-year-old had driven a trio of friends from down the street to school at 1200 Maroon Drive, including junior Kimberly Perez. Although, at 16, Kimberly is just old enough to drive herself, she said, the thrill of the privilege already has worn off.

“I’m kind of used to getting rides to school. Before, it was awesome,” she said.

That may be partly because that privilege comes at a price tag steep for many high school students — the parking permit for the school parking lot. It’s something school districts across the Fox Valley require students who park in high school lots to buy, at varying prices.

That’s why Rodriguez said he parks on the street.

“You have to pay $100 to park there,” the Elgin senior said, gesturing toward the school parking lot.

“When my brother was here, he paid $50. It’s kind of lame.”

Elgin School District U46 raised its parking fees from $60 to $100 last school year, part of across-the-board fee increases as the school district attempted to close a $48.3 million budget deficit. Fees had not been raised since 2004.

At that time, the district compared the cost of its parking permits to surrounding school districts, according to U46 Safety Coordinator John Heiderscheidt.

That $100 fee still is comparable, if not less expensive, than passes in other Fox Valley districts.

Central Community Unit School District 301 has charged $100 at its one high school, Central High School in Burlington, for “quite some time,” according to the school.

Carpentersville-area Community Unit School District 300 charges $125 for a full year and $70 for a half year at its three high schools, according to the 2011-12 fee schedule posted on its website.

And parking in St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 will set you back the prettiest penny.

St. Charles North High School last year began charging $100 for a permit that allows students to park in the school lot every other day, according to district spokesperson Jim Blaney. St. Charles East High School also charges $100 for juniors to park every other day, he said. Seniors there pay a premium — $200 — but can park every day.

That every-other-day parking is because of space limitations in the St. Charles schools’ parking lots, Blaney said, and it goes back at least to North’s first group of graduating seniors in the early 2000s.

Possible ban

There’s no problem with space limitations in Elgin High School’s parking lot. But by the time the first bell rang at 7:30 a.m. On Oct. 14, both sides of Maroon Drive were lined with cars from one end of the school’s parking lot to the other.

That’s “so they wouldn’t have to pay for the permit,” said Elgin junior Eric Sedleck of Bartlett, who also parked on the street that day.

That’s not a problem either, Heiderscheidt said. The problem is nonstudents parking on Maroon Drive and trespassing on school property before and after school, he said.

That’s because Elgin High School is surrounded on most sides by neighborhood streets, where it’s easy for anybody to “park and mix in with students,” according to the safety coordinator. U46’s four other high schools, because of their location, don’t have that problem, he added.

Of the 104 arrests last year at Elgin High, he said, 18 involved trespassers. And not even a month into the 2011-12 school year, the high school’s liaison officer already has arrested six trespassers.

Trespassers typically are asked to leave, maybe issued a warning “if we need to,” Heiderscheidt said.

Those arrests are part of “repeated gang-affiliated problems in the vicinity of Elgin High School,” according to documents supplied at a recent Elgin City Council meeting.

“Last year, there were over 100 arrests at EHS, many of them gang-related. It is believed that some of these issues originate from nonstudents coming to EHS, parking on surrounding streets — especially Maroon Drive — and waiting to approach students,” the documents said.

But senior Rodriguez said, “I’ve never seen that — ever.”

Fellow student Perez agreed.

“That’s totally wrong,” she said. “The school doesn’t even have that many fights. It’s really good this year.”

Still, the city council now is discussing banning parking from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days on Maroon Drive near the high school. That would involve installing 22 new signs and poles at a cost of about $1,210, to be split between the city and U46.

That’s something the students said they haven’t heard about at school. But it would upset a lot of Elgin students, Rodriguez said.

“I’m going to park back in the houses then,” he said. “I don’t like that.”

Unfortunately for the senior, and other students like him, parking is prohibited from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on all other side streets in the neighborhood around Elgin High School.