When the gravel parking lot was introduced to The Village School, students rejoiced: gone were the days in which only seniors could park on campus, and now all the upperclassmen are able to park on campus. 

While the students at the school are grateful there is more parking space now, there also are a few inconveniences that students believe must be addressed; most notably, however, are the poor drainage, and subsequently high flooding risk of the lot, when heavy rain occurs. This makes it difficult to maneuver vehicles and simultaneously risks flooding the cars as well.  

“There are a lot of holes in the lot itself,” said senior Michael Lopez Lauver.  

“However, I believe that flooding is the main issue, and I think this issue could be solved through an irrigation system of some kind.” 

As a result of the staff and student complaints regarding the issue of flooding and drainage, The Village School administration has taken action to address this problem.

“These holes were patched [on Saturday, January 25th and Sunday, January 26th], and I have seen [a] noticeable improvement to the lot,” said David Randolph, Managing Director at The Village School. “The holes are less severe, however, there are still potholes in the lot.”

Furthermore, Randolph disclosed information regarding future measures the school plans to take, including the implementation of a project to serve as a long-term solution to the issue of flooding. 

“We have a project lined up for this spring break to improve the drainage,” said Randolph. “We plan to expand to the larger culvert in and expand that drainage.” 

Randolph’s mention of a culvert refers to a pipe that water will drain into in order to be carried into a retention pond at another location other than the gravel lot. The implementation of this intends to fix the issue of flooding in the gravel parking lot and is aimed to be completed upon our return to spring break. As of February 27th, work is ahead of schedule and should be completed by the end of the month. 

Although the culvert seems to be the most plausible and likely solution to address flooding, students, however, have expressed support for another solution: paving over the gravel parking lot. Many are not happy about how the gravel makes their cars dirty and how it can be potentially damaging. 

However, Randolph mentions that doing so is not exactly feasible as the process has numerous complications. 

“Right now there are no plans to pave over the parking lot,” said Randolph. “If we pave over the gravel parking lot that would reduce the campuses water retention capabilities, meaning we would have to find another way to retain water because the city would require us to do so. So as of now no there are no plans to pave the gravel lot.”

Although teachers and students are grateful for the upcoming potential long-term solutions, many also wish to see the implementation of easy, short-term solutions. 

“It would be tricky to make improvements during the year, however, I would like to see some signs saying that certain areas could potentially be flooded,” said Max Manning, a Fine Arts teacher at The Village School. “

The school is already working to improve the lot, and hopefully, with upcoming projects and attention to the issue, it will soon be resolved.